In the advent of the HIV epidemic, the number of people with cancer has escalated, the head of Oncology at Princess Marina Hospital said last week. Dr Alexander Von Paleske informed the media that the ward, which was initially meant to be for admissions and observations, has now turned into a cancer ward. He said that the number of outpatients has increased and the rest of the staff feels it.
Paleske said that he sees about 30 patients everyday. He noted that the most common type of cancer is Kaposi Sarcoma, which is a skin tumour and can be removed through surgery. He said the skin develops black nodules that can become open smelling wounds. He said sometimes there are no choices but to amputate the limbs. Kaposi Sarcoma amounts to 80 percent of the patients they see. However, he said that without ARV’s, many more people would have developed the cancer. Due to the unforeseen proportions of cases, he said they cannot afford the use of modern cancer drugs or have kidney or marrow transplants when a large number of people are in need of ARVs.
He said the government is faced with providing large amounts of money for radiation treatment, which is compounded by the fact that there is no radiotherapy in the department. He said although it is still in the early stages, there are plans to open a radiotherapy unit at the hospital. However, he said there would be a need to have radiotherapists as well as a building to accommodate the equipment. Other challenges the department faces is shortage of beds. He said that by decentralising, they are able to transfer patients to smaller hospitals for treatment of Kaposi Sarcoma. Von Paleske said the drugs required for the treatment of this cancer costs P350. Von Paleske said one is more likely to get this kind of cancer with HIV. He said the second most common cancer is Lymphoma Tumour, which is more aggressive and more expensive to treat.
He said with cancer being such a catastrophe, nurses deal with its emotional impact. The whole families is counselled as well and often families need their fears of cancer allayed as sometimes they think that cancer is an infectious disease, which it is not.
Von Paleske said that often people come for treatment late, when the cancer tumour could have been treated early. He advised that it is necessary to contact health institutions as early as possible and admitted that there is not enough information reaching the public on cancer. As part of making people aware of the increasing problem of cancer, the Cancer Association of Botswana (CAB) manager Jeroen Lorist said that they want to make October a cancer awareness month. The month is internationally dedicated to breast cancer. Lorist said that most public health expenditure in Botswana goes towards HIV/AIDS and CAB works in its mitigation.
Source: All Africa
