Philippa Kibugu-Decuir, who survived breast cancer after 15-years, is the founder and director of Breast Cancer Initiative East Africa, a breast cancer organization for the region.
Along with over sixty experts and breast cancer survivors from Rwanda and abroad, they gathered in Kigali Saturday as part of the 14th Butare Medical Conference to discuss barriers that prevent people from seeking and obtaining the medical help they need.
Kibugu-Decuir says there is a lack of resources and services for women in East Africa. “There is no funding for it, no awareness, no advocacy, no education,” says Kibugu-Decuir. “If you don’t know, you think it will go away.”
Born in Rwanda and educated in Uganda, Kibugu-Decuir is now a high school teacher in Texas, USA and a breast health advocate. She came to Rwanda last year to lay the foundation for her work and returned this July to continue rallying support.
During her visit last year, Kigali Central University Hospital (CHUK) offered land to Kibugu-Decuir to build a cancer centre. She is attending a meeting at the hospital this week to discuss logistics, but needs funds. She is launching a campaign to solicit donations and secure grants.
Kibugu-Decuir’s main goal is to get two mobile-mammogram units, one for Rwanda and one for Uganda, for breast screening for women in rural areas. Mammograms are able to show abnormalities in breast tissue and Kibugu-Decuir is trying to raise $1.5 million for one machine.
“It can multitask. It can screen and document data,” Kibugu-Decuir says, explaining the use of the machine. Information obtained from the equipment would be used to establish a registry of who has been screened and in what areas. “We need statistics,” she says.
Dr. Jean Bosco Gahutu, head of the Clinical Department of Medical Biology at Butare university teaching hospital, says the only statistics known in Rwanda are those gathered at hospitals. There are no external studies done.
“We need infrastructure and materials,” Gahutu said. He says Kibugu-Decuir’s work is helping to provide that.
Breast cancer is easier to cure when it’s caught in the early stages, says Dr. Charles Muhizi, the Faculty of Medicine’s acting dean at the National University of Rwanda. “The problem is that people realize it very late.”
He says there is not enough awareness about cancer in Rwanda. There is no department of oncology in the country.
The distribution of cancer in Rwanda is similar to that in other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Tumours believed to be associated with aspects of Western life-style, such as colorectal and breast cancer, are relatively infrequent, according to the International Journal of Cancer in its recent study.
The high-end King Faisal hospital has a mammography machine – which uses X-ray images of the affected breast aiding physicians to detect and evaluate breast cancer at an early stage. But available information shows that very few people know about this service or it remains too costly to be accessed by a great majority of women.
Dr. Hakiba Solange, Maternal Health Minister from the Ministry of Health, says she is really supportive of the new initiative, as cancer is a health issue that needs more attention. She says the government is putting a strategy in place to aid in doing that. “First of all, it will be to assess how big the problem is in Rwanda and then to start a campaign on raising awareness and also training providers for the screening.”
The current level of accessibility in the country is low, says Solange. “People are coming to seek care late. They come when they’re really suffering,” she told the RNA.
“Each women is invited to examine herself. If you feel some bumps, you go to the doctor to confirm,” says Muhizi. “But people don’t check. If you feel something abnormal, consult a specialist. We want to raise the awareness. It’s a long struggle, but we have to start.”
The most frequent cancers on the continent and Rwanda as well were said to include: liver cancer, cervical cancer and stomach cancer. In addition, the researchers said cancers known to be associated with HIV infection are relatively frequent such as Kaposi's sarcoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.