Alternative Africa

Top Menu

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact Us

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business
  • Environment
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Reports
    • Africa-Observers
      • Read Reports
      • Submit a story
  • MORE
    • Health
    • News Now
    • World
    • Technology
Sign in / Join

Login

Welcome! Login in to your account
Lost your password?

Lost Password

Back to login
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact Us

logo

Alternative Africa

  • Home
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business
  • Environment
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Reports
    • Africa-Observers
      • Read Reports
      • Submit a story
  • MORE
    • Health
    • News Now
    • World
    • Technology
  • 18 family members get COVID-19 after Xmas gathering in Pennsylvania

  • California removes over 330,000 doses of Moderna vaccine after severe allergic reactions

  • Joe Biden says travel bans on UK, EU will stay despite Trump order

  • Nigeria in talks to produce licensed covid-19 vaccine locally, releases $26m as take-off grant

  • Zambia launches crackdown on unlicensed covid-19 drugs

News Now
Home›News Now›Global Health: As Cancer Tears Through Africa, Drug Makers Draw Up a Battle Plan

Global Health: As Cancer Tears Through Africa, Drug Makers Draw Up a Battle Plan

By alternativeafrica
October 7, 2017
648
0
Share:

Slow Progress

Even with cheaper drugs, progress against cancer in Africa will be slower than it was against AIDS, all parties to the deal warned.

Continue reading the main story

AIDS is caused by a single pathogen that can be suppressed, albeit not cured, with a daily three-drug pill.

Cancer — out-of-control multiplication of the body’s own cells — comprises an entire family of diseases. Treatment often entails surgery, radiation and chemotherapy involving complex mixes of drugs.

Kenya offers a glimpse at the possibilities.

Its national health insurance plan, which charges annual premiums of $18 to $200 depending on income, began covering cancer only two years ago. Now, about 8 percent of its payouts are for the disease.

Three years ago, patients could wait 18 months for radiotherapy at Kenyatta National Hospital, the only one poor people could afford; many died waiting. Now, with insurance covering radiation in private hospitals, the wait is gone.

In Nairobi Hospital, a private institution that was once the European Hospital, Christine Kimburi, a 42-year-old property manger with 11-year-old twins, rested comfortably in a bed getting an infusion for her choriocarcinoma, a cancer of the uterine lining that erupted after a failed pregnancy.

Photo

A sign outside Nairobi, Kenya, advertising local cancer care from the Aga Khan University Hospital. Credit Joe Van Eeckhout for The New York Times

She had surgery and is on her fifth chemo round. Her national insurance covers four rounds a year, and her husband’s covers four more.

With luck, that is all she will need. Choriocarcinoma is often curable.

“The mass they removed was not cancerous — we thank God for that,” she said. “And I’ve had nil side effects from the chemo.”

But Kenya remains exceptional.

When she first looked at treatment in Africa, Dr. O’Brien said, “I was just blown away because so little attention was being paid.”

“In America, since the 1960s, we’ve turned cancer from this frightening, inevitably deadly disease into something very fightable,” she added. “That human triumph has not crossed the border into Africa yet.”

Continue reading the main story

SHARE ON:
TagsAfricaAmerican Cancer SocietyBreakingCancerChemotherapyCipla LtdDrugs (Pharmaceuticals)NewsPfizer IncTumors
Previous Article

Donkey ‘crisis’

Next Article

Russian forces kill ‘120 ISIL fighters’ in ...

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

alternativeafrica

Related articles More from author

  • News Now

    Nigeria: Labour Unions serve Osun state 7 days strike notice

    September 9, 2018
    By alternativeafrica
  • News Now

    Koulibaly nets as Napoli lead Serie A

    September 20, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News Now

    Morgan Tsvangirai ‘hopeful’ after Robert Mugabe’s resignation

    November 21, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News NowWorld

    Evacuation ends as ISIL defeat in Syria’s Raqqa nears

    October 15, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News Now

    South Africa’s lucrative funeral insurance industry

    March 27, 2018
    By alternativeafrica
  • News NowWorld

    Deadly bombing hits Damascus police station

    October 2, 2017
    By alternativeafrica

Leave a reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You might be interested

  • News NowPolitics

    Zimbabwe: Opposition leader charged over post-election violence

  • HealthNews NowWorld

    German Cathedral to display relics of saint corona, the saint that resists epidemics

  • BusinessNews Now

    Economic Commission of Africa to assist Nigeria, other member states in the area of job creation

Timeline

  • January 19, 2021

    18 family members get COVID-19 after Xmas gathering in Pennsylvania

  • January 19, 2021

    California removes over 330,000 doses of Moderna vaccine after severe allergic reactions

  • January 19, 2021

    Joe Biden says travel bans on UK, EU will stay despite Trump order

  • January 19, 2021

    Nigeria in talks to produce licensed covid-19 vaccine locally, releases $26m as take-off grant

  • January 19, 2021

    Zambia launches crackdown on unlicensed covid-19 drugs

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Lagos govt confirms first case of deadly coronavirus infection in Nigeria

    By alternativeafrica
    February 28, 2020
  • Keynote Address of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at 2018 Oxford Africa Conference

    By PSJ Africa
    May 14, 2018
  • Morocco begins regional integration by connecting Casablanca Airport with High Speed Train

    By alternativeafrica
    January 4, 2020
  • Kenyan govt pressure Facebook for data on Kenyan users

    By alternativeafrica
    November 20, 2019
  • Nigeria: 32,000 capacity Lagos rice mill to start production in 2020

    By alternativeafrica
    December 23, 2019
  • The return of fortress conservation: why excluding people means biodiversity conservation will fail – Future agricultures
    on
    October 16, 2020

    Inside the training camp of Akashinga, Zimbabwe’s armed, all-women anti-poaching rangers

    […] In parallel to ...
  • The return of fortress conservation: why excluding people means biodiversity conservation will fail - The Zimbabwean
    on
    October 12, 2020

    Inside the training camp of Akashinga, Zimbabwe’s armed, all-women anti-poaching rangers

    […] In parallel to ...
  • Ethiopia joins Africa's Artificial Intelligence revolution | Alternative Africa
    on
    October 2, 2020

    Spending on Artificial Intelligence Systems in Africa, Middle East to top $374 million in 2020

    […] Many African countries ...
  • The 5 most popular Africans 2020
    on
    September 25, 2020

    Celebrating Congolese doctor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the man behind breakthrough of Ebola cure

    […] Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe ...
  • Millitants in Central Mali Set Jail Ablaze in Attack Killing Two | taktik(z) GDI (Government Defense ...
    on
    August 11, 2020

    Fifteen gendarmes killed in another attack on Mali camp

    […] attack fol­lowed a January ...
AlternativeAfrica.com is an independent Pan African News Website dedicated primarily to influencing the negative narratives about Africa. We hope to do this by focusing and showcasing the many developmental strides sweeping across the continent.

Read more >>>

Contact Info

  • info@alternativeafrica.com
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • 18 family members get COVID-19 after Xmas gathering in Pennsylvania

    By alternativeafrica
    January 19, 2021
  • California removes over 330,000 doses of Moderna vaccine after severe allergic reactions

    By alternativeafrica
    January 19, 2021
  • Joe Biden says travel bans on UK, EU will stay despite Trump order

    By alternativeafrica
    January 19, 2021
  • Nigeria in talks to produce licensed covid-19 vaccine locally, releases $26m as take-off grant

    By alternativeafrica
    January 19, 2021
  • Lagos govt confirms first case of deadly coronavirus infection in Nigeria

    By alternativeafrica
    February 28, 2020
  • Keynote Address of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at 2018 Oxford Africa Conference

    By PSJ Africa
    May 14, 2018
  • Macron in Ivory Coast to launch anti-terrorism academy

    By alternativeafrica
    December 21, 2019
  • Kenyan govt pressure Facebook for data on Kenyan users

    By alternativeafrica
    November 20, 2019
  • The return of fortress conservation: why excluding people means biodiversity conservation will fail – Future agricultures
    on
    October 16, 2020

    Inside the training camp of Akashinga, Zimbabwe’s armed, all-women anti-poaching rangers

    […] In parallel to ...
  • The return of fortress conservation: why excluding people means biodiversity conservation will fail - The Zimbabwean
    on
    October 12, 2020

    Inside the training camp of Akashinga, Zimbabwe’s armed, all-women anti-poaching rangers

    […] In parallel to ...
  • Ethiopia joins Africa's Artificial Intelligence revolution | Alternative Africa
    on
    October 2, 2020

    Spending on Artificial Intelligence Systems in Africa, Middle East to top $374 million in 2020

    […] Many African countries ...
  • The 5 most popular Africans 2020
    on
    September 25, 2020

    Celebrating Congolese doctor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the man behind breakthrough of Ebola cure

    […] Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe ...

Photostream

    Follow us

    • Home
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
    © Copyright Alternative Africa 2019. All rights reserved.