UCI wants Cuba to help in radiotherapy, anti-cancer drugs

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Cuban Ambassador to Uganda Antonio Louis has today announced a partnership between his country and Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) in which they will develop specific treatment for cancers that are prevalent in low developing countries.

UCI executive director, Dr. Jackson Orem who received the delegation at the Institute this morning said this was the second time the ambassador was visiting in two years to explore possibilities of Uganda using the countries advancements in cancer care.

Dr. Orem says their discussions with Luis focused around the pressing needs in treatment at the Institute presently and where they need most support which include inadequate human resources in the area of radiotherapy.

Owing to the high expenditure by government and out of pocket by patients in procuring anti-cancer drugs, Dr. Orem said he is also interested in seeing the Cuban government come up with joint innovations to support local manufacturers of anti-cancer drugs here.

With the status of the Institute as the regional center of excellence for oncology, Ambassador Luis said this new partnership will focus on revamping research and sharing knowledge in what the two countries can do to improve quality of care.

However, this is not the only collaboration that the institute is engaged in as already they have partnerships with the US, Korea and UK but Dr. Orem says the one with Cuba is different as it is a self -help initiative that will more directly tackle challenges faced with developing countries.

He said apart from sharing research and human resource, Uganda will also benefit from technology transfer.

Cuba is praised globally for it’s well developed health system and in terms of cancer treatment, the country has become a destination for health tourism especially with a recent addition of a lung cancer vaccine to its profile of cancer research.

The innovation, Cimavax has already received endorsement as being cheap and yet improves lives of sufferers and their survival.

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