Vulnerable cancer patients exploited

Doctors in India perform a procedure on a cancer patient.

By Peter Orengo

Kenya: The government and local cancer care providers are to blame for the high cost of cancer treatment in the country, health experts have said.

As the world marked the Cancer Day Tuesday, what became clear is that Kenyans suffering from chronic diseases like cancer believe that they could only get cured if they sought treatment abroad, and yet world class infrastructure to treat nearly all cancers is available in the country, costs notwithstanding.

Currently, the preferred destination for newly diagnosed cancer patients is India, which is enjoying robust marketing in Kenya by Indian healthcare service providers.

Various Indian hospitals have even set fully-fledged offices in Nairobi and other major towns, to recruit and coordinate patient transfer.

A regional cancer expert revealed that many patients are made to believe that Kenya does not have  cancer treatment facilities and expertise and that those patients who get treated locally get a raw deal.

Unfortunately, a big number of these patients return home, only to deteriorate and die, because the disease was already too advanced.

“It is an indictment of our healthcare system which has failed to protect patients from misinformation and exploitation. Nobody tells these patients the truth,” said Dr David Makumi, the Aga Khan Hospital’s Cancer Programmes East African regional administrator.

To make matters worse, Kenya has too many herbalists who claim they can  cure cancer in four weeks, and tele-evangelists who pronounce cancer healing upon receiving a ‘financial seed’. Then there are multi-level marketers who literally rip off cancer patients with their nutritional supplements.

The latest scam is the marketing of quail eggs and meat as a cure for cancer without scientific evidence. This is exploitation of vulnerable patients and their families.

“It is obvious that patients with chronic diseases like cancer are almost always the target of bogus claims,” said Dr Makumi.

He believes that cancer in Kenya will be subdued not in one huge advance, but in short incremental steps. To start with, mid this year, Kenya hosts the biggest cancer charity which is known as Relay for Life. The event galvanises ordinary citizens to respond to the cancer problem.

The government says the country loses Sh7 billion annually to foreign hospitals through cancer patients seeking treatment abroad, while an estimated 22,000 people die of cancer annually, a figure that translates to 60 deaths daily.

Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia blames the crisis on low levels of awareness, inadequate screening services and ill-equipped referral facilities.  Macharia says the country has limited specialists, who are concentrated in Nairobi and these handle the high number of cancer cases at public hospitals.

“We are challenged. We only have 12 trained oncologists in public hospitals to handle the patients throughout the country,” said Macharia.

Civil society cancer advocates who pushed for the National Cancer Control Act (2012) are now in constructive activism with the technocrats at the Ministry of Health collaborating to move from cancer rhetoric to cancer action.