{"id":983,"date":"2014-02-11T13:00:31","date_gmt":"2014-02-11T12:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/blogs\/english\/?p=983"},"modified":"2014-02-11T13:00:31","modified_gmt":"2014-02-11T12:00:31","slug":"cancer-in-burundi-to-wait-for-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/cancer-in-burundi-to-wait-for-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancer in Burundi: to \u201cwait for death\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

7,6 million people die of cancer worldwide every year. In Burundi, cancer is not the main concern of the Public Health Ministry which decided to \u2018celebrate\u2019 International Cancer Day every February 4th by holding a mere workshop. The Burundian Alliance Against Cancer (\u201cAlliance Burundaise de Lutte Contre le Cancer\u201d), active since June 2008, speaks up.-<\/strong>Joanna Nganda<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Nelly<\/a>

Nelly Keza, \u201cIn Burundi, when you have cancer [\u2026], all you can do is take pain medicine, and wait for death.\u201d\u00a9Iwacu<\/p><\/div>Nelly Keza, youth\u2019s Representative within the Alliance, is puzzled by the Public Health Ministry\u2019s way to celebrate International Cancer Day. \u201cCancer is a real problem in Burundi; they\u2019re a lot of cases throughout the country. In fact, just last week at Ngozi a woman died of cervical cancer\u201d, says Nelly Keza. The Alliance has been driving campaigns of sensitization through which it also promotes prevention. \u201cIn Burundi, the most common cases are cervical cancer, prostate cancer, throat cancer related to smoking, and liver cancer caused by hepatitis virus. The last two can mostly be prevented by changing one\u2019s lifestyle, and the cervical cancer has a vaccine against it\u201d, Nelly Keza explains, stressing the point that the activities of the Alliance could easily be done by the Public Health Ministry. \u201cIf only cancer could be considered at the same level as HIV, a lot would change positively. We do a lot within the Alliance but there\u2019s only so much we can do with the means we have. We recently gathered money to send a cancer patient abroad to get a treatment. Now, the patient is back and sound.\u201d It\u2019s a victory but a small one for Nelly Keza who wishes more could be done with the help of the Public Health Ministry.<\/p>\n

The right to fight<\/strong><\/p>\n

At a time when multiple studies have shown that cancer is increasing in developing countries, it is hard to understand the loneliness of the Alliance in its fight against cancer. Nelly Keza states that preventing cervical cancer is easy since there is a vaccine against it; holding vaccination campaigns for women countrywide can be done and it\u2019s a shame it is not done yet. \u201cIn Burundi, when you have cancer and don\u2019t have money to get treated abroad, all you can do is take pain medicine, and wait for death\u201d, indicates Nelly Keza, explaining that treatment for cancer is very expensive and lasts a long time. The average Burundian is not able to afford it and doesn\u2019t have the chance to even try to fight cancer. Although there\u2019s apparently no solution, Nelly Keza insists on the fact that prevention and awareness-raising must continue. \u201cAt least, the patient will know what he\/she is suffering from. Knowing also keeps the patient from wasting money in trying to take random medicine that won\u2019t cure the disease. In fact, quite often doctors at the common health center upcountry can do all the tests necessary but still be unable to find cancer. Then, they just give you medicine to try and cure the \u2018mysterious\u2019 illness. For cancer in Burundi, much more has to be done and February 4th should not be neglected\u201d, concludes Nelly Keza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7,6 million people die of cancer worldwide every year. In Burundi, cancer is not the main concern of the Public Health Ministry which decided to \u2018celebrate\u2019 International Cancer Day every February 4th by holding a mere workshop. The Burundian Alliance Against Cancer (\u201cAlliance Burundaise de Lutte Contre le Cancer\u201d), active since June 2008, speaks up.-Joanna […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[113,127],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}