Cancer Experts Call For Policy to Address Management
The Executive Director Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) Dr. Jackson Orem has attributed the increasing number of cancer cases in Uganda to the absence of a policy that could address the management of this disease.
Dr. Orem says that issues concerning cancer were left to the UCI and the Ministry of Health with no collective effort and interventions to address the disease.
Dr. Orem said this during the Parliamentary Health Committee visit at the Uganda Cancer Institute today.
According to Dr. Orem, the Institute has come up with a National Cancer Control Plan that only needs support from the government, parliament, and other private institutions to have cancer controlled in the country.
However, Dr. Nixon Niyonzima the Head of Research and Training Directorate at the UCI says that currently, Uganda registers over 34,000 new cancer cases every year and 20% of these cases are received at the Institute of which 10% are children yet 30% of the patients are HIV positive.
Dr. Francis Ayume, the chairperson of the Parliamentary Health Committee promises to help the Cancer Institute in ensuring that they get funds that could help in fulfilling their Control Plan.
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