The Paediatric Oncologist at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, Dr. Nihad Salifu, has advocated State and non-state support for the treatment of childhood cancer to lessen the burden on parents whose children have cancer.
She said the partnership between the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons and the World Child Cancer has helped many families in dealing with the disease though much attention has not been paid to childhood cancer.
Speaking at the maiden Professor Jacob Plange-Rhule Memorial Lecture in Accra, Dr. Salifu said the World Child Cancer is doing its best to ensure that children with cancers have 80 percent access to health care and treatment to achieve 60 percent survival rates by 2030.
Africa is said to be the second largest continent with about one billion people with childhood cancers.
The disease is among the top causes of deaths among children less than 15 years.
The late Rector of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Prof. Jacob Plange-Rhule in collaboration with the World Child Cancer established the Paediatric Oncology Fellowship in 2018, the first of its kind in Africa.
The College also has a partnership agreement with the World Child Cancer to train Paediatric Oncologists locally and others from Liberia and Sierra Leone. Paediatric Oncologist at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, Dr. Nihad Salifu, called for government intervention and support from corporate institutions to improve conditions of children with cancer.
The Memorial Lecture is to honour Professor Jacob Plange-Rhule for his numerous roles and successive rollout of the Paediatric Oncology Subspecialty course for Ghanaians. The lecture is also to promote research on Childhood Cancer in Ghana and West Africa.
A citation was presented to the family of the late Professor Jacob Plange-Rhule who died last year from Covid-19. The Memorial Lecture was in collaboration with the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, World Child Cancer and the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
By: Naa Atswei Sowah.
