ADDIS ABABA – The Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) announced that it has set to build a Regional Cancer Center of Excellence (RCCE) in Ethiopia at a cost of 450 million USD.
IGAD in collaboration with the Government of Ethiopia organized yesterday a resource mobilization event and panel discussion on regional cancer initiative event with a theme: “Partnership to Step up the Fight against Cancer in the IGAD Region”.
At the event, Dr. Amir Aman, Chair of IGAD’s Health Ministers, told journalists that the establishment of RCCE will be instrumental to identify and determine the means and mechanisms to mitigate the disease burden.
He further said it will be helpful to inform the general public about early symptoms and signs and educating health professionals on cancer prevention and control strategies for quick referral procedures to hospitals and the regional center for better treatment.
Presently, three are very few oncologists in Africa and most of them are operating in South Africa and Egypt. An oncologist in the IGAD region is presently serving about 1.5 million people. Thus, the establishment of RCCE in the IGAD region is paramount to provide trainings in all aspects of oncology, Hematology, Radiation oncology and allied health professionals related to the discipline, Amir said.
The participant of the event deliberated that the burden and magnitude of the problem from cancer will increase as life expectancy increases. But, the reality is that cancer patients in the IGAD region do not have access to some or all the essential services.
Sani Abdulahi, from the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, said that his country will stand by the side of IGAD and pledged continuous support for the realization of the aspiring project.
It is also stated that regional and national cancer programs will benefit immensely with human resource capacity building to develop further the center guidelines center for treatment, pathology review center, center for clinical trials, and regional statistic center for oncology.
Currently, Addis Ababa City Administration has allocated land for the RCCE project and the foundation stone will be laid on the coming January. The finance to build the project will be sourced from member states, development partners pledges.
The Ethiopian Herald September 17/2019
BY LAKACHEW ATINAFU
