Muhimbili gets cancer ward for children

 

British researcher Jane Goodall sits in a hospital bed inside a new ward launched at the Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam yesterday for treating children with cancer. Next to her is Bank M chairman Nimrod Mkono (right). PHOTO | RAFAEL LUBAVA 

By Fariji Msonsa

In Summary

• The 23-bed capacity ward has been co-sponsored by Rotary International, Bank M and the Kalamandalam Association, which unites residents of the Indian State of Kerala living in the country in promoting their culture and brotherhood.

Dar es Salaam. A new ward for children with cancer has been opened at the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH)to reduce congestion at the Ocean Road Cancer Institute (ORCI).

The ward will be used to treat communicable diseases that children with cancer get due to congestion which claim more lives than cancer itself.

Speaking during the opening ceremony, the chief guest, Dr Jane Goodall, said that the Sh1.2 billion facility and equipment alone cannot cure patients, unless doctors and nurses were committed to doing their job.

The renowned primatologist and conservationist, famous for her research work on apes in the Gombe Stream National Park, noted that best wards and best medical equipment are useless without adequate and committed health staff.

The 23-bed capacity ward has been co-sponsored by Rotary International, Bank M and the Kalamandalam Association, which unites residents of the Indian State of Kerala living in the country in promoting their culture and brotherhood.

On the other hand, the chairman of the donors of the ward, Prof Joseph Kuzilwa, said most of the children with cancer in the country die of non-communicable diseases, not cancer itself.

He said in the previous years, children with cancer rarely survived, despite the fact that most of the paediatric cancers are curable.

The new ward will also reduce overcrowding at the ORCI. The ward has five isolation rooms for children with other infections, apart from cancer.