Late Diagnosis of Cancer
It is sad to lose Onapito an amiable and resourceful gentleman. Surely, he still had a lot to offer to his area of Teso and the whole country.
If it is true as we are getting to now learn that comrade Onapito Ekomoloit was recently diagnosed with cancer at stage 4 which had sadly eaten up the better part of his lungs and only passed away this morning at the moment when he was supposed to be started on chemotherapy, then this must once again ring bells of reminder of what many people have been calling out our country's Health sector managers to just kindly help Ugandans and expeditiously procure the promised PET machine.
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As it has been said severally, the effort to push back on the growing epidemic of Cancer in the country is most important for people to be able to undergo early diagnosis of the disease. Early detection of the cancer cells, helps to start on early vital interventions that can have a higher probability of pushing back on the disease.
We have recently heard of news reports of King Charles of England and Princess Kate of Wales having been diagnosed with cancer. But due to the fact, in their case, it was detected early, they both were able to undergo chemotherapy and reportedly, they are doing just fine.
Therefore the importance of early diagnosis or detection of cancer can't be over-emphasized.
Given the status and financial capability of our departed brother, if that diagnosis and detection were done early enough, probably there are mitigation interventions that could have been done to save the life of our brother plus many others that have died in a similar manner.
As has been mentioned severally, in Africa, currently there are only three countries that have the PET machine and these are South Africa, Kenya (Agha Khan Private Hospital) and Nigeria in which the process of installation of the machine is ongoing.
Many already know of numerous people who have been diagnosed with cancer by our very able Doctors at Mulago, but the unfortunate fact is that due to lack of the modern requisite early cancer detection equipment, in most cases the cancer in these patients has been detected majorly when it is at an advanced stage. Although, in an attempt to help fight the ailing patient, our Doctors have done all that they can do using whatever is available to them as a treatment for cancer, the results haven't been encouraging. In most cases, for those diagnosed patients who might be able to raise funds to go for treatment abroad, the Doctors have referred them to countries like India and Turkey. As we all know, treatment abroad comes with tremendous costs that not many wananchi can dream to afford.
Once again, as we as a country collect ourselves to try and come to terms with this very tragic loss of our illustrious brother and comrade Onapito Ekomoloit we shouldn't for a moment forget that we have also lost many others to this scourge of cancer. We can't forget the loss of Rt. Hon. Jacob Oulanya and Hon. Cecilia Atim Ogwal succumbed to cancer which was only detected when it was in its advanced stage. Many Ugandans whose names are not that prominent have succumbed to the same scourge.
The question now is when can we as a country take a very decisive decision to procure the PET machine? As it is turning out, actually, with all our financial challenges, once determined, we can afford to procure even up to 10 such PET machines so that each of our Regional Referral Hospitals can have one. The procrastination and the usual excuses need to stop today so that constant bereavement for Ugandans dying of late-diagnosed cancer can be at least reduced.
Fare-thee- well Ona!
---- Edward Baliddawa - 27th September 2024