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NPR Highlights PIH Child Cancer Care in Rwanda
Posted on Aug 6, 2019
Cecille Joan Avila / Partners In Health
Dr. Cyprien Shyirambere examines 6-year-old cancer patient Frank Mugisha (name changed for privacy) in March 2017 at the Butaro Cancer Center of Excellence in rural northern Rwanda. Medical staff at the PIH-supported facility have treated thousands of patients, young and old, since it opened in 2012.
A recent piece in “Goats and Soda,” National Public Radio’s global health and development blog, shows how Partners In Health is leveraging strong collaborations to provide low-cost, lifesaving care for children with cancer in northern Rwanda.
The July 26 piece, “How to Bring Cancer Care to the World’s Poorest Children,” features the Butaro Cancer Center of Excellence. The facility is part of the PIH-supported Butaro District Hospital, operated in close collaboration with Rwanda’s Ministry of Health. PIH has worked in Rwanda since 2005 and is known locally as Inshuti Mu Buzima. The cancer center opened in 2012 and now sees nearly 2,000 patients per year, from across Rwanda and from nearby countries where affordable, quality cancer care is scarce or nonexistent.
The NPR piece cites a PIH study—published in 2018 in the Journal of Global Oncology—that showed children with cancer could get full treatment, follow-up care, and social support at the Butaro facility for a fraction of the costs found in high-income countries.
"There's this myth that treating cancer is expensive," Dr. Christian Rusangwa, deputy chief medical officer in charge of chronic care for PIH in Rwanda, and a co-author on the study, said in the NPR piece. "And that's because the data is almost all from high-income countries."
Read the full NPR piece here.
