It's SteeTime!

A 27 year old female patient was admitted into one of our wards at a state hospital in Harare. Brenda* was diagnosed with Infective Endocarditis . This means she had a vegetative growth on her heart valves which could lead to heart failure and other complications. I have to explain that the investigation to make this diagnosis is an expensive one. One that Brenda could not afford. Our medical team managed to get it done for free, sort of a social services waiver. Not everyone is lucky enough to be granted such favours. The treatment for Infective Endocarditis, besides treating heart failure, is 14 days of intravenous antibiotics. Just 14. And because it is intravenous, the patient has to stay in the wards to receive the injections. But Brenda couldn’t stay for all those days. She had 5 young children at home, abandoned by their father and starving. It had been Brenda’s responsibility to collect food vouchers for the children from a food-donor organization. So she requested to lea...

When you google 'Oncology in Africa' these are the article titles which come up on the first page: Cancer in Africa: Fighting a nameless Enemy   Cancer in Africa is like a 'Runaway train'   Oncology: A Forgotten Territory in Africa Cancer is so mystical in Africa that in the 2000 to 3000 languages in Africa, there is no vernacular word with direct translation for 'cancer'. In Africa, the incidence of cancer is increasing, but it remains a low public health priority because resources are limited and there are other pressing medical problems, such as AIDS/HIV infection, malaria, and tuberculosis. Most of the efforts and helps provided by the Western countries to Africa are spent to prevent and cure infectious diseases and malnutrition, leaving the patients with cancer to their poor destiny. In fact, oncology in Africa seems to be a branch of the medicine that is practiced only by the local traditional he...