President Yoweri Museveni has urged Uganda to always go for routine cancer screening before it is too late.
He made the call on Thursday afternoon while commissioning the construction of the Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute- Uganda at Uganda Cancer Institute.
The Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute sits on a 25,000-square-feet piece of land. It can treat up to 20,000 patients each year.
It includes adult and pediatric outpatient clinics, a research clinic, laboratories, specimen repository, training center, conference rooms and a pharmacy.
According to the Museveni, UCI-Fred Hutch Cancer Centre will significantly increase patient access to cancer diagnostics and treatment while furthering the study of cancers in Uganda, particularly those that are infection-related.
//Cue in: cancer has got...//
Cue out...another angle. //
Uganda has a substantial cancer burden, and six out of 10 of the most common cancers are caused by infectious diseases.
The facility seeks to ensure the availability of medical care, overcome the social and economic barriers to completing treatment and improve capacity of the medical infrastructure to diagnose and care for patients.
With the new premises, it is hoped that the five-year survival rate of cancers such as leukemia which is less than 40 per cent will be improved.
Beatrice Nyangoma
Freelancer