World Economic Forum in Rwanda: Africa's war on cancer

On the panel, H.E. Dr Agnes Bingawaho, Minister of Health of Rwanda, Dr Prebo Barango, Medical Officer Inter-Country Support Team for Eastern and Southern Africa (IST ESA), World Health Organization, Dr Julie Torode, deputy CEO of UICC and Sparc-Awardee Paul H. Park, Director of Non-Communicable Diseases, Partners in Health discussed together with moderator Arnaud Bernaert, Head of Global Health and Healthcare Industries at the World Economic Forum the rising cancer burden and actions needed to be taken to address this problem.

“Cancer is a global problem accounting for almost 13% of all deaths worldwide. This equates to over 7 million people a year, more than HIV/AIDs, TB and malaria combined,” Arnaud Bernaert introduced into the session. “Although the world is rightly focused on controlling the spread of these infectious diseases, we can´t ignore the growing burden of cancer in developing countries anymore. The social and economic impact of cancer on individuals, families and societies is set to accelerate.“

“There is a common misconception that cancer is not a health priority for Africa. But 70% of the new-diagnosed cancer cases will fall on under-resourced regions in the world“, Dr Barango revealed to this statement at the beginning of the discussion. „That’s why it´s time for Africa to stand up and take the initiative“, Dr Agnes Bingawaho added. “But to achieve a better access to the whole continuum of cancer care, we need strong partnerships and collaborations not only in-between the government and the public, but with the private sector as well.” A very good example, Dr Bingawaho explained further, is the high vaccination rate of 93% for HPV, achieved by a successful collaboration with the International Agency for Research on Cancer, WHO and GAVI The Vaccine Alliance that will prevent thousands of women to suffer from cervical cancer.

A further example for a fruitful partnership was showcased by Dr Paul Park from Partners in Health Butaro-Hospital. But partnership can’t replace investment and funding. “Yes, it’s true, you need to finance in infrastructure and people in the beginning. And some might say that this is too expensive. But we all know that in the end, the investment in health is less expensive than to pay in case of sickness. Not only on the field of cancer but here can we see a high-level of cost-effectiveness through prevention and early detection. We need upfront investments in cancer care. Public-private partnership is mandatory to reach this."

“For that reason, UICC promotes investment in case for radiotherapy, for example”, underlined Dr Julie Torode from UICC. “It’s accepted, that radiotherapy saves lives and returns on economic investment within a 10-15 year period.” Against that background, the loss of the only radiotherapy machine in Uganda is a dramatic failure for many patients in the whole region. “At least 50% of African cancer patients are in need and have a right to access lifesaving radiotherapy. We have a global goal, targets, indicators and a road map of intervention. We now need African countries to implement these commitments – providing advice for adaptation to national needs, transfer of skills, and most importantly, funding to put the fundamental infrastructure in place for cancer services. African city leaders should take on the cancer challenge.“ 

Dr Bingawaho summarised Rwanda's ambitions at the end. “We need to educate our own people. We need to make them stay in the country and teach and do research. Africa needs to hurry to close the gap. But together, we are sure, we’ll find our way.”

For more information about this event please visit https://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-on-africa-2016.