Online Reporter
Robin Muchetu Health and Gender Editor
SPECIALIST surgeons from Bulawayo and Harare have benefitted from a breast cancer masterclass that was hosted by the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) by visiting surgeons from the United Kingdom.
The masterclass also saw nurses benefiting from the training, which is in its second year and are set to impart knowledge to peers across various hospitals.
Professor Jerome Pereira, one of the visiting breast cancer specialists from the Association of Breast Surgery(ABS) in the United Kingdom, who is also the director of the Mastership Surgery Courses at the university of East Anglia in England was in Zimbabwe recently to train locals on advanced management of breast cancer.
“Well, this is really a surgical meeting where we are beginning to train the next generation of surgeons in this country to be able to manage breast cancer in a modern way.
“Since we’ve been here over the last eight years, we have put a lot of things into place to teach the frontline nurses, to try and educate the general public, to put in databases so we can record what’s happening and to improve the internet through installing Starlink and to actually take some nurses to the UK for fellowships,” said Prof Pereira.
He said there has been an increase in breast cancer cases globally and in Africa, like many other low-to-middle income countries, is affected and needs support from the outside world.
“This is what prompted us to come and share our expertise with countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and I came to Zimbabwe seven years ago to offer training for surgeons and nurses. I think the main thing is awareness.
“One powerful way we can start which can make a change is to have a women’s voice because this is the second most common cancer that affects women in Zimbabwe. If women were to stand up and call for higher quality care, support and resources from the Government it will make a difference too,” he said.
Prof Pereira further said Zimbabwe is fortunate to have dedicated nurses and surgeons and they need more support to carry out their duties.
In an effort to expand knowledge on breast care, Zimbabwe has so far sent six nurses for advanced training in the UK.
Dr Richard Rainsbury, another visiting surgeon from the UK also spoke on the nurse training programme that is also underway.
“We have had six nurses in the UK for six weeks, and they have all come back now and they are leading the programme of training of the nurses,” he said.
“What we hope to do is to extend what we have done in Matabeleland South and Bulawayo to other provinces in the country because breast cancer knowledge and training is sadly very, very poor in the country. It is not anyone’s fault.”
Dr Rainsbury lamented the lack of a curriculum, degree programme or some kind of focus on breast cancer in the country over the years, which has led to the reduced ability of identifying patients and caring for them in hospitals.
“But that’s all changing with what is going on here because we now have a diploma that’s going through the Ministry of Health so that newly qualified nurses will have the opportunity to learn all about the basic management of breast cancer.
“We now have this new programme at UBH. Last year was the first time we had a masterclass, so we are actually in theatre with real live patients, and we’ve asked the patients about their disease and looked at them and decided what’s the best way of managing that patient.
“The fundamental thing is to take the breast cancer away and if that’s being done, is there a way of doing that without causing too much deformity to the patient so they preserve their body form,” he said.
“This is all about treating the whole patient, but with a priority on the tumour itself, on the cancer and we have now got some young people coming over from the UK, who are leading the programme in the UK as well. So, we are going to make this an annual programme in Zimbabwe,” added Dr Rainsbury.
The masterclass was attended by specialists and nurses from around the country. Asked what kind of support countries like Zimbabwe need to ensure that they manage to get most of the cases of breast cancer, the visiting specialist said Government needs to invest more in screening.
“That screening in this initially is going to be the use of breast ultrasound. So, we bought some probes (used to detect and image cancer biomarkers). We have three probes in this country, which produce these images, which can be uploaded on an iPhone and someone either in this country or in the United Kingdom or the United States can read the images and just report online to the local people and say, right, that needs to be biopsied, that needs to be reassured, that needs to be referred,” said Dr Rainsbury.
“We are about to start a programme using AI to read the images and we are going to do a comparison between the interpretation by AI versus a radiologist looking at the images to see.”
Turning to demographics of breast cancer cases in Zimbabwe, he said it was now visible in young people.
“The thing about Africa in general is this massive young demographic. So, you have this massive cohort of young people coming up. Of course, you are going to see more cancers in that younger group because there are more of them. But at UBH, the mix is quite wide across the spectrum, they probably see more people still who are in their perimenopausal or postmenopausal, but I am sure there are a lot of young people as well.
—@NyembeziMu
