By: Nyima Sillah
The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH) Dr. Ammar Al Jafari has said that the hospital and its partners are set to mitigate cancer in the Gambia.
He stated that the treatment of cancer is not available in the country. Still, it is preventable through screening and the use of the Human Papillomavirus Vaccine (HPV).
“We don’t want to wait until the end stage or last-minute patients come with cancer and we cannot do radiation therapy or Chemotherapy which is not available in the country, and it is costly,” the CMD told The Voice in a recent exclusive interview regarding the issues of cancer.
According to him, they plan to start from the beginning which is to offer free screening to all females across the country and also the Ministry of Health vaccination on HPV vaccines, addingthat the HPV vaccine is “very” good and recommended by so many experts across the world.
“I am advising all the parents to encourage their female children to get vaccinated. The vaccine is available through the Ministry of Health and the age bracket is between 8-14years. Above 14 years, it is our responsibility to do screening and it is available in almost six hospitals in the country,” he stated.
The CMD explained that the screening result might be negative or positive, adding when it is negative is good but positive, they do more investigation to diagnose any cancer, especially cervical cancer in which the person can survive 100%.
He opined that when cancer is diagnosed early, usually the treatment is good because sometimes the patients need only surgery which is available in the country, and they have good doctors who can do the operation professionally.
“Sometimes surgery is not enough, you need radiation therapy or Chemotherapy which is a big challenge for us. We don’t have a problem with surgery in the hospital but those treatments are our challenge. This comes after diagnosis and it is expensive but we put it in our plan, and we should have it very soon. We need concerted efforts to fight cancer and we can do it,” he said.