Médecins Sans Frontières - Cancer in Africa : a humanitarian emergency (INT)

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF336337

Date taken / Date Recorded 16/02/2020 12:00 AM

Country France, Malawi

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Photographer / videographer / producer Armelle Loiseau

Copyright Armelle Loiseau/MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) External Media, MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★ (F)

Video format h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 6m3s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 614.82 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist Cancer in Africa : a humanitarian emergency
Hello everybody, today we are going to talk about treating cancer in Africa.
In 2018 over one million new cases of cancer were declared on the African continent and with many cases likely going undiagnosed or unreported, the actual number may well be higher.
In order to talk about this matter I’ve come to Henri Mondor Hospital, in suburban Paris, where many cancer patients come for treatment.
How does oncological care work in France?
Tackling cancer in high-income countries with a solid healthcare system is based on prevention and early diagnosis via awareness campaigns and routine screening for people at risk.
Actions like these make it possible to start treating patients in the early stages of the disease, increasing their chances of recovery.
Once diagnosed, a case of cancer requires the coordinated effort of a multi-disciplinary team and the right technical infrastructure.
What does the situation look like in Africa?
The African continent is going through an epidemiological transition, which means that the number of deaths associated with cardio-vascular disease and cancer is on the rise compared to deaths associated with infectious disease.
This transition is linked among other things with the fact that people are living longer and that their exposure to risk factors such as physical inactivity, smoking and alcohol is also on the rise.
The three most common types of cancer in Africa are cervical cancer, breast cancer and prostate cancer and the consequences can be devastating. For example, the survival rate of breast cancer at 5 years, which is 85% in resource-rich countries doesn’t exceed 15% in Africa.
Malawi, Blantyre
I am now in Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, where MSF offers a comprehensive cervical cancer treatment programme.
Cervical cancer affects the lower part of the uterus and is caused by a virus called human papillomavirus. If a woman infected by the virus is also positive to HIV, which happens frequently in this area, the chances of the infection turning into cancer are higher. As a result, over 2,000 women die from cervical cancer each year in Malawi, a disease that is both preventable and treatable with success if diagnosed early enough.
Most people living in rural areas live on less than a dollar a day
Tifera Botomani Mapasa
MSF Health Promotion Manager
So it’s a challenge because for them to travel to the health centres it costs at least 3,000 kwachas, which is quite a lot of money. In the government hospitals, they’re told they have to pay at least 25,000 kwachas for a biopsy, which is also a challenge. Even women who could be treated and cured don’t have access to medical treatment because they don’t have enough money to pay for the biopsy.
I am now in a health centre near Blantyre, women come here for screening for cervical cancer.
Where did you hear about cervical cancer screening?
Here.
Now we’ll wait for the result.
Will it take one hour?
No, only one minute.
But even in this area, near one of the major cities in the country, access to screening is not easy and sometimes, if found positive, they have no access to treatment.
If screening or admission to care are delayed, cervical cancer can quickly move to advanced stages.
The palliative care team visits dozens of women at home for follow-up.
This morning we’re going to Ndirande to see Margret Mafupa who’s 49 years old. She went to the health facility to be screened for cervical cancer way back in 2017, and she was told she was negative. And the symptoms kept on persisting and she kept on going to the health facility only to be given medication for STIs. It was in 2019 when she discovered that there was a screening centre for MSF at Ndirande where she was now discovered a cancer suspect. And when she was told to come to MSF outpatient department, then they examined her only to discover that she was already 3B and on palliative.
Palliative care is offered to terminally ill patients to help them to preserve some quality of life, manage pain and receive psychological support.
It is something so pathetic because this woman had the eager to know how she was doing only to realise she was indeed a cancer suspect at a later stage.
For her bath, we sit her on a chair and wash her.
Bertha Samson
Margret’s mother
She can’t stand up on her own and walk to the house.
Margret had to stop working and is now reliant on her family’s support
As was the case with AIDS at the end of the 90s, our teams are sometimes not fully equipped yet to assist patients severely ill with cancer; a major challenge for the next decade will be to improve the way we tackle a very complex disease requiring specific resources and skill sets in areas of the world lacking adequate levels of infrastructure and experience, but where needs are growing fast.
Thank you everybody for watching, please don’t hesitate to share this video on social networks.
Images shot in France in 2019 and in Malawi in March 2020