By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi has been recording an average of 180 new cancer cases every year. Leukemia, that is a blood disorder, lymphoma, and kidney cancer are among the commonly reported cases, mostly at advanced stages.
Additionally, the facility is recording more cases of children with brain tumours, as 30 cases have been reported so far this year. These came to light when the hospital received cancer teaching material from an NGO to support its care for patients.
The mannequin is part of the many assistances given to KATH by ‘Wish4Life’, a US-based humanitarian non-governmental organization dedicated to supporting measures targeted at fighting, reducing, treating, and educating about cancer, especially those involving children. The mannequin, with some accessories, is to help staff at the Oncology Unit of KATH gain practical skills to reduce the pains cancer patients—particularly children—go through during their hospital visits for chemotherapy. This would also help parents of children with cancer appreciate that treatment this time around would be less painful compared to the existing practice.
The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital is the only centre for the treatment of cancer in the central and northern part of Ghana. This is attributable to the rising number of reported cancer cases at the facility.
A Pediatric Oncologist at the hospital, Dr. Lawrence Osei Tutu, speaking to GBC, disclosed that despite the seemingly high number of reported cancer cases recorded at the hospital every year, the disease is one of the underreported health concerns. He mentioned that people aged from birth to 21 years are the dominant patients.
“The dominant ones are leukemia, that’s cancers of the blood. You know your bones, when you’re eating your goat meat, the soft part—the marrow inside, the sweet part inside—that’s where your body produces red blood cells. So sometimes, things go wrong. Then you’ve the lymphomas. The same process can happen in what we call lymph nodes. So you can see swellings in the neck and stuff like that.”
According to the Head of the Pediatric Oncology Unit of KATH, Dr. Mrs. Vivian Paintsil, herself a Consultant Pediatrician Hematologist Oncologist, KATH has been recording an average of 180 cancer cases annually. She assured that, with adequate resources and early reporting of cases, about 150 of the 180 cases reported early could be cured.
“If we’re able to put our acts right, we’ll be able to save, if we talk about 180 people, about 150 of them. And then if we’re able to save them, that means they have the rest of their lives to live to help mother Ghana,” Dr. Mrs. Paintsil said.
The Founder and President of ‘Wish4Life’, Dr. Taniya Rippret, explained the importance of the mannequin to cancer treatment and how it can contribute to care at KATH. She pledged the commitment of her NGO to sustaining and even improving the partnership with KATH, including professional training programmes for the staff to boost cancer treatment at the hospital.
Last year, ‘Wish4Life’ donated gifts worth thousands of dollars, including tablets, to children with cancer on admission, and items for their mothers for psychosocial support against the pains they go through. The NGO is also constructing a cancer treatment and research centre in the Eastern Region for West Africa.
