Lack of support systems bane of cancer treatment in children -Experts
EXperts have blamed the low survival rate of children with cancer in the country on lack of equipment and other support systems required for treatments. The experts who gathered at an Awareness Walk organised by Children Living with Cancer Foundation (CLWCF) lamented poor awareness level on the fact that cancer also afflict children.
Addressing participants shortly after the walk, which kicked-off from the National Stadium and terminated at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital,(LUTH) Idi- Araba Lagos, a Consultant Paediatrician in Oncology/Haematology at LUTH, Dr. Adebola Akinsulie who noted that about five cases of cancer in children are seen every month in LUTH. He said as low as the statistics may look, when compared with conditions like malaria, the number was still alarmingly high.
Stating that to nurse a child with no fewer than N2 million would be required for a period of six months, pointed out that five cases in a month total about 50 cases in a year. Akusulie regretted that only a few of these children survive in Nigeria due to lack of drugs, blood and other essential support systems for proper treatment.
He noted that most children with cancers like cancer of the blood (Leukemia) face a lot of challenges in Nigeria due to lack of blood and equipment to separate the blood into different components.
“A lot of them are not surviving because many of them present with low platelet, and even when the whole blood is available, there is no machine to separate them. Most times, they bleed into the brain and die.”
Lamenting that in Lagos alone, only LUTH and Island maternity hospital has a Cold Centrifuge, a machine used to separate the blood into various components, he said, “Right now, the one in LUTH is down and the one at Island Maternity is not 100 per cent functional”. He appealed to well meaning Nigerians to donate towards procuring the machine which, he said, is in the neighbourhood of N20 to N25 million.
Earlier, the Executive Director of Children Living with Cancer Foundation (CLWCF), Dr. Nneka Nwobbi who explained that the Awareness/Fund-Raising Walk, tagged;”Walkathon 2011 was solely dedicated to the procurement of two Cold Centrifuge for Oncology Department of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) called for more awareness creation on cancer in children.
