AORTIC: When people think of ill health in Africa

The focus on infectious and communicable diseases has meant that few people realize the large numbers of people in Africa who have cancer. In fact, Cancer is very much a neglected disease in Africa. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that the number of new cancer cases annually is expected to rise from 10.9 million in 2002 to 16 million by 2020, with some 60% of these cases occurring in less developed parts of the world, including Africa. Almost 7 million people now die globally each year from cancer. Due to the widespread neglect of the disease both among health politicians and donors, facilities for the prevention, diagnosis, management and palliation of cancer in Africa are hopelessly inadequate, leaving millions of men, women and children to die undignified and painful deaths.

Our Organization, African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC) is trying to rectify this situation by promoting education, research and training in cancer for African health care professionals and, through advocacy, to put cancer firmly onto the African health agenda. One way we plan to do this is through multi-disciplinary conferences where we bring as many African health professionals together as possible.

AORTIC (African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer) has chosen to hold its 6th International Cancer Conference from 24 – 28th October 2007 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre in South Africa. In November 2005 we held a very successful conference in Dakar, Senegal, with approximately 400 people from 37 different African countries, USA, UK, Germany, Belgium, France and Austria taking part.

AORTIC's key objectives are to promote and expedite research on cancers that are prevalent in Africa (such as cancer of the cervix, the breast, the oesophagus, the prostate, blood cancers and many others). We also support the management of training programs in cancer care for health care workers, and deal with the challenges of creating National cancer control and prevention programmes at government level. We wish to work with health ministries of the African Union to bring to the attention of leaders, opinion makers and influential people that cancer is a serious and profound health problem of African people. The myth that cancer is a ‘first world' disease needs to be dispelled.

Many potentially curable cancers amongst African men, women and children are usually diagnosed very late, when treatment is unsuccessful. Furthermore, in many African countries there are no facilities for palliative care. Pain control medication such as oral morphine is in short supply (or non-existent), leaving men, women and children to suffer agonising deaths. The dichotomy Africa is faced with is that we possess health care professionals who are experts in the treatment of a broad range of cancers, but unfortunately their numbers are few, and fall far short of the demand.
Our conference hopes to not only bring awareness to the problem of cancer in Africa, but also to bring Africans together to find African Solutions to African Problems.

Lynette Denny
Secretary Treasurer, AORTIC, October 12, 2007

See the AORTIC web site herehttp://www.aortic2007.org