Childhood cancer treatment: Little warriors fighting tough battles
For two months consistently, in the cold of the night, Hanza battled a chronic cough leaving him with a high body temperature and beads of sweat all over his body.
In his sleepless nights, the nine-year-old boy coughs for more than 30 minutes while his family stays awake to watch him suffer in the hands of the painful persistent cough.
Zainabu and her son were asked to go home any time they visited the hospital because all doctors who attended to Hanza claimed he was very well.
The nights became critical, Zainabu was disturbed and confused, as a mother, she had to do something; she had to think outside the box and find a solution to her son’s situation.
One sunny morning, Zainabu, without anyone’s knowledge, visited a herbalist to seek help and was given a herbal concoction for her son’s situation, which rather worsened the boy’s condition. Her only option was to return to the hospital.
“After several visits to the hospital, the medical doctors at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) could not diagnose what exactly was wrong with my nine-year-old son. All they did was to administer a cough mixture, I was really troubled,” she lamented.
As the cough became persistent, doctors at the TTH could not tell what the condition was, after trying lots of traditional cough mixtures; Zainabu contacted her friend who is a medical doctor at the Korle-bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in Accra for assistance.
The two prepared for their journey to the KBTH in Accra and after series of examinations, Zainabu’s friend, the doctor suspected cancer and sent her to the Radiology Department to obtain a head CT scan before Hanza could be diagnosed or admitted into the ward.
CT scans are used to detect bone and joint problems, like complex bone fractures and tumours. If you have a condition like cancer, heart disease, emphysema, or liver masses, CT scans can spot them or help doctors see any changes. They show internal injuries and bleeding, such as those caused by a car accident.
Now, the real deal begun for Zainabu when she was told that her son Hanza had developed cancer, Hanza was admitted at the ward, and Zainabu had to stay with her son, but the child health ward, which could admit only five mothers was already full and where to stay was a challenge.
“I prepared to stay here for at least a minimum of one week to find out what exactly is wrong with my son, the ward is full and I have no place to stay now, I have to also go back to work because I work in the formal sector, and I cannot stay out of work for three years, my husband is a farmer and his resources alone cannot cater for my son and I in this condition,” she lamented.
Things got tougher for Zainabu when her child was diagnosed with childhood cancer and she was told that the treatment would last for a minimum of three years.
Childhood cancer is expensive to treat, takes a toll on the finances, work and general life of families whose children get affected with the condition.
Of the estimated 200,000 children who get cancer globally each year, 80 per cent live in low to middle-income countries, unfortunately, only 10 to 30 percent of children affected have a chance of cure due to late representation, lack of funding and support from governments.
The need for more equitable and better access to treatment and care for children with cancer everywhere have been a concern to the international community in the past years.
Though the exact causes of cancer in children have not yet been identified, it is said to be a default in the makeup of children, which affects them from one month of age usually beginning with persistent common childhood illnesses such as fever, weight loss, bone pain and a swell on the body among others.
In Ghana, there is no comprehensive data on the magnitude of childhood cancers, but it is, however, estimated that about one in 500 children could be affected before age 15.
Childhood cancers claim the lives of many Ghanaian children, though most of the cases are not reported, the most common childhood cancers are cancers of the blood or leukemia, immune system, lymph, eye, brain and kidney.
Unlike cancers in adults, which are triggered by certain lifestyles, childhood cancers are just defaults in the makeup of a child, however, only a few cases are pregnancy-related.
As of now, there are only two Childhood Cancer Treatment Centers in Ghana – Korle-bu Teaching Hospital and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital. These centers attend to about 400 cases across the country in a year.
Presently, the childhood cancer day care at the Korle-bu Teaching Hospital, which serves as an Out Patient Department (OPD) for children with cancer attends to between 10 to 20 patients every day.
The children visit the day care for their medications and injections “depending on the type of cancer you have, you either come once in a month, once in a week or on daily basis”.
Zainabu was able to rent a single room near the Korle-bu Teaching Hospital but money to pay for the high cost of medication for her son’s treatment was taking a toll on her, she had requested for some months off from work without pay and the only source of income for her son’s treatment now was her husband and other benevolent family members and friends.
At the KBTH, the test for childhood cancers begins with baseline labs such as full blood count, liver and renal function, and Hepatitis B and C and a whole body examination.
This is done before the cancer specific test which enables the doctors diagnose and establish the type of cancer affecting the child, the extent of cancer spread in the body, the treatment modalities, choice of medication and the length of treatment all at a cost of GH¢2000.
Dr Matilda Dono, a Resident Doctor at KBTH explains to GNA as part of the ‘Mobilizing the Media for Fighting COVID-19″ project being implemented by the Journalists for Human Rights in collaboration with the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), that “in spite of the high cost to childhood cancer treatment, the National Health Insurance does not cover its treatment in any way.”
Although childhood cancers are curable, the success rate of cancer cure is, however, dependent on how early the cases are reported. Late case presentation means low chance of survival.
Dr Dono, said most cases delay due to the inability of some nurses to quickly detect a case.
“Also most parents abandon treatment due to accessibility challenges; such as geographical cost where most of them had to travel from far places to seek health care, lack of accommodation and huge transportation costs,” she said.
She urged parents to be on the lookout for their children every day saying, “If you have a child with cancer, the child may have fever, lose weight, bone pain or may have a swell on some part of the body, the catch with cancer is that if you notice persistent signs, which are not going away think of cancer”.
Dr Dono encouraged parents to avoid hospital shopping and seek health care at one health facility so health workers can identify such cases early, adding that, cancer cells multiply at a faster rate and they do not die but rather outnumber the normal cells in the body.
Most parents especially mothers lose their jobs during treatments as they have no option than to abandon their jobs and stay with their children.
Dr Dono said the lack of a childhood cancer hostel facility has increased the stress in the treatment process as most patients need to travel from far places to seek treatment at the KBTH in Accra.
She called on the government to pay attention to the development of children in Ghana, make childhood cancer treatment affordable and also include it on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Dr Dono appealed to policy makers to formulate child friendly policies, and ensure that much attention is directed to children.
Article 24, Paragraph one of the United Nations (UN) Conventions on the Rights of the Child, of which Ghana is a signatory to states that States Parties recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health.
It said States Parties shall strive to ensure that no child is deprived of his or her right of access to such health care services, but the state of access to care for children with cancer is very poor as parents struggle to have access to care and pay for treatment cost without any support from the state.
In February 2017, the Korle-bu Teaching hospital provided a land for the construction of a hostel to accommodate parents who travel from far to seek cancer treatment for their children.
Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, the First Lady, cut a sod for the project to start but the completion of work on the project has delayed due to the lack of funds.
Dr Kwame Aveh, President of the Ghana Parents Association of Childhood Cancers (GPACC) said the edifice of the 54 bed hostel facility for mothers has been completed and an urgent support from the Government and corporate Ghana is needed to furnish the hostel and make it functional.
This when completed will ensure that the barrier of long travel distances to access care for children with cancer and the high cost of transportation fares, which deters most parents from seeking treatment for their children will be addressed.
Children with cancers often miss the opportunity to go to school, as they embark on the treatment journey, they become familiar with the names of their chemo instead of their classmates.
Nurses and doctors become their new family. These are small children fighting big battles, if they are indeed our future leaders, then, there is an urgent need to support them in their treatment journey.
Ghana needs to pay critical attention to the barriers to accessing childhood cancer treatment in order to attain the Sustainable Development Goal 3, which entreats countries to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being at all ages; it is the rights of these children to access healthcare with ease.
By Linda Naa Deide Aryeetey
Source: GNA