Ex-First Lady disburses N100m to 60 cancer patients

Ex-First Lady disburses N100m to 60 cancer patients

Former First Lady of Kebbi State, Dr. Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu, the Chief Executive Officer of Medicare Cancer Foundation, has distributed N100 million to about 60 cancer patients to enable their treatment and other care.

She told journalists in Abuja, on Tuesday, that the funds would be disbursed through the Patients Access to Care (PACE) platform of the Medicaid Cancer Foundation, and might be channeled to the hospitals for radiotherapy, surgery, chemotherapy, and other care.

She said: “Thought, it’s a drop in the ocean. But to put it in a good perspective, I have said this many times, a woman diagnosed with stage two breast cancer in Nigeria has a good chance of survival. Most of our patients are diagnosed in stage three and four, and so, the survival rate for breast cancer is about 25 per cent, a five-year survival rate.

“But if you go to high-income countries like the UK, US, Australia, and so on, their survival rate is in the region of 90 per cent after five years. For that woman in stage two, coming back to her with breast cancer, she needs about N25 million to cure her breast cancer, male or female.

“We saw a male breast cancer patient today who said, already, he has spent N18 million and he’s going back for chemotherapy again. So, if you mention N100 million, it might sounds like a lot, but N25 million per woman is going to four patients. So, you can see the great extent of the disease.

“The average family, middle income in Nigeria is on a salary of N75,000, N100,000. So, how is that going to help? We need, critically, health insurance. We need to focus on early diagnosis awareness and systems that will help us catch it early and therefore spend less on cancer.”

She confirmed that the federal government is doing a lot but more effort is required particularly from the private sector. “From the government side, they can also work with partners, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, industry partners that will support the process,” she suggested.

Dr. Yakubu Agada-Hamade, Director of Standards and Quality Assurance, National Insurance Health Authority (NHIA), commended that Medicaid Cancer Foundation for the commitment to the fight against cancer.

He said: “Medicaid Cancer Foundation has been relentless in the fight against cancer. At NHIA, we are also doing a lot. As we speak, NHIA looks at the three critical pathways for management of cancer, and that includes surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy.

“For surgeries, we cover all the surgeries that are listed in the procedure, whether they are for cancer or for any other condition, we cover them. For radiotherapy, we cover up to 50 per cent because of the cost. And then for chemotherapies, for the medicines, we also cover a lot of them. There are different pathways to the coverage. There are the ones that we cover fully, which is 90 per cent, patient pays only 10 percent.

“There is another pathway where, because of the cost, we cover 50 per cent of the cost of medicines. Where we are able to have Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the drug companies, the pharmaceutical companies, we are also able to cover 50 per cent by the pharmaceutical companies. And then another 30 per cent by the health insurance system, and then the patient is left to pay 20 per cent. Sometimes that 20 per cent is even still high.

“But we are working on finding partners and collaborations where we will be able to cover more. Because we have been directed by the National Assembly to cover all cancer cases in Nigeria, we know that it is very cost intensive. And we are looking at the opportunity of having funds to be able to cover all vulnerable people who will come down with cancer. So, we have done this, and with the collaboration with you, partnership, we will be able to let people also be aware that there is also a pathway to management of cancer through health insurance.

“And the more people that enroll in health insurance in Nigeria, the more robust your health system will become, the more resilient it will become to be able to withstand this high-cost disease treatment.”

Meanwhile, the Director-General of National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (NICRAT), Dr. Usman Aliyu, appreciated the intervention, and stressed the importance of more funding for cancer care in Nigeria.

He said that the National Cancer Fund has been helpful in the fight against cancer in Nigeria. “But we need all the additional support so we could get to also tackle pediatric cancer which is a growing challenge in Nigeria.”