adminthem attributed to HIV and Aids. Many poor patients like Nyson Mhaka from Mberengwa have resigned their lives to fate after waiting for months to get treatment from Government hospitals. “I have been hospitalised here for close to two years now and have since lost hope of any treatment for the cancer I’m suffering from, which doctors have said is cancer of the blood,” said Mhaka who was transferred from Musume Hospital in Mberengwa because the institution did not have cancer specialists.
His hope is slowly waning and he considers his chances to get treatment even in Harare, with the entire country said to have only four specialists who can operate the equipment, namely a mammogram, a special X-ray machine used to detect breast cancer early and gryoscreen for prostate cancer.
Evidence Chapupu has taken up the role of caregiver for her husband after he was diagnosed with cancer of the blood.
“Since my husband was diagnosed with cancer in February this year, I have never had enough time to attend to other domestic issues as I have to give all the attention to my sick husband,” Chapupu said.
Tafadzwa Chigariro, an officer at the Cancer Association of Zimbabwe, said the association does not have up-to-date statistics on cancer cases in the country. “We rely on a government agent, the Zimbabwe National Cancer Registry, which collect and collate statistics on cancer, but the statistics are based on institutions, which are obtained in individual hospital records,” said Chigariro.
Chigariro said the country recorded at least 5 000 to 7 000 cancer cases annually up to 2009.
He said the increase in cancer cases was due to HIV infection.
“About 60 percent of cancer cases are related to HIV as many people diagnosed of cancer these days develop AIDS-defining malignance (cancer),” Chigariro said, adding that certain cancer types were associated with an individual’s HIV status.
According to the Cancer Association of Zimbabwe, changes in lifestyle and diet contributed to the development of cancer, a disease that used to be common among the rich elite class due to dietary habits.
“As people get richer, they rarely exercise and the food they eat tends to lack roughage and as a result we need to revert to non-refined traditional diets,”
Chigariro said, adding that early diagnosis increases chances of successful treatment.
In 2002 the Zimbabwe National Cancer Registry recorded a total number of 151 childhood cancer cases comprising 89 boys and 62 girls while in 2006 a total number of new cases of cancer recorded was 4 175 comprising 1 842 males and 2 333 females.
Recent reports from Government have shown that up to 1 300 people die of cancer annually. Health and Child Welfare Minister Dr Henry Madzorera said of the 3 349 new cancer cases diagnosed in 2007, more than 1 300 people died of the disease.
Madzorera said radiotherapy treatment services were only available at Mpilo and Parirenyatwa hospitals despite the growing burden of cancer countrywide, adding that equipment at the two hospitals offering radiotherapy services was always down, compromising the quality of service delivery to cancer patients. According to
World Health Organisation (WHO), about 40 percent of all cancers can be prevented through practising safer sex, reduction of tobacco use and lowering alcohol consumption.
The Zimbabwe National Cancer Registry Annual Report says 2007-2009 were very difficult years for Zimbabwe due to severe economic challenges experienced in the country, adversely affecting the healthcare delivery system, leading to the closure of the Bulawayo Cancer Registry (BCR), subsequently leading to a false decline of new cancer cases nationally.
A Harare-based cancer specialist said the HIV and AIDS pandemic continued to have a major influence on the incidence and pattern of occurrence of cancer, reports which are consistent with observations made in other sub-Saharan countries of Africa. But traditional healers interviewed attributed cancer epidemic to generational ancestral curses, claims which Zinatha could neither deny nor confirm.
“Cancer is a curse unleashed by angry ancestral spirits on errant individuals,” said Hokombwe Mukurunge, a traditional healer based in Epworth.
Zimbabwe’s National Cancer Registry in 2007 recorded a total of 3 349 cancer cases comprising 1 431 and 1 918 females, with Harare totalling 1 441 consisting of 655 males and 786 females, with a total of 1 306 cancer deaths comprising 640 males and 666 females recorded in Harare the same year.
Cancer specialists attributed a decline in 2007 cancer cases to computer system failure between 2007 and 2008 before ZCR had printed out the histology reports for these years, a situation worsened by the dysfunctional healthcare delivery system.
The total number of new cancer cases recorded among Zimbabweans in 2009 was 3 519 comprising 1 427 males and 2 092 females, with Harare totalling 1 616, consisting of 706 men and 910 women, with 157 child cancers, according to the 2009 ZCR annual report, with 1 029 cancer deaths recorded in the same year in Harare, a significant increase in the number of new registrations when compared with 2008.
Online Reporter