OVER 50 per cent of girls diagnosed with cancer at Bugando Medical Centre (BMC) are affected by cervical and carcinoma, according to reports. BMC medicine Physician, Dr Benard Gombanila, said lack of a special ward for cancer patients had been posing challenges to their treatment as most of them didn’t attend a medication schedule accordingly.
The very fact that the hospital offers both chemical and radiotherapy services but also there is lack of ward to accommodate these patients has been a challenge because most of them become distressed, thus failing to attend treatment as he said.
He also said that BMC is the only public facility which provides such services. It is located in the Lake Zone and neighbouring regions. It also includes Tabora and Kigoma. The number of cancer patients within the Lake Zone attending the hospital has been increasing from 320 in 2009 to 4,900 in 2015 and nearly 15,000 cancer patients last year.
Data source: Daily news