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Bugando receives gear from Aga Khan, AFD

What you need to know:

  • The machine will help in cancer diagnosis to reduce cancer morbidity and mortality in target regions where community health workers will be equipped with education on cancer treatment, develop treatment and conduct cancer research in the country,

Mwanza. The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) in collaboration with the French Development Agency (AFD) last week handed over a breast cancer screening machine worth Sh800 million to Bugando Medical Centre (BMC).

The machine was procured under a four-year Tanzania Comprehensive Cancer project which is under the two development agencies, according to the project manager, Dr Harrison Chuwa.

The inauguration of the machine was held at Bugando hospital in Mwanza Region where over 20 people would be diagnosed.

Dr Chuwa said the project is implemented in eight districts of Mwanza and five districts of Dar es Salaam Region.

He hinted that the whole project is worth over Sh39 billion and is expected to reach over 1,700,000 people in the project area. According to him, the hand-made machine is the first to be installed at Bugando, second in Tanzania and third in East African countries.

“The machine will help in cancer diagnosis to reduce cancer morbidity and mortality in target regions where community health workers will be equipped with education on cancer treatment, develop treatment and conduct cancer research in the country,” said Dr Chuwa.

The Aga Khan hospital’s radiation head of department, Prof Ahmed Jusabani, said the machine has the ability to detect the primary symptoms of cancer which were previously undetectable.

The country director for the French Development Agency (AFD), Mrs Stephanie Mouen, said that it was her government’s pleasure to ensure that it cooperates with other stakeholders in order to reduce cancer cases in Tanzania.

“This new state-of-the-art mammography machine at BMC is the first of its kind in the Lake Zone and it is expected to cater for a population of almost 12 million people in screening women and addressing breast cancer at very early stage,” she hinted. For his part, the director of Health Services, Social Welfare and Nutrition in the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government Tanzania, Dr Ntuli Kapologwe issued the directive to the district and region’s medical officers to arrange a budget for cancer awareness campaign.