UGANDA— The Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI), and two of India’s leading healthcare providers, Aster Medcity and Magnus Medi, have held the first-ever Bone-Marrow Transplant Conference in Kampala.
The conference underscored the need for closer collaboration between African and Asian countries on key elements such as research, knowledge exchange and increasing the pool of stem cell donors.
The conference was held at the UCI-Fred Hutch Cancer Centre and attracted doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, researchers and students attached to the Uganda Cancer Institute.
The conference is one of the very many initiatives envisaged under an in-the-works academic exchange and collaboration programme between UCI, Aster Medcity and Magnus Medi.
The academic exchange and collaboration programme being discussed by the three entities will see collaboration and capacity-building efforts to improve healthcare, especially in oncology in Uganda.
The tripartite bone-marrow conference follows a knowledge exchange visit by UCI staff to Aster Medcity in February 2022.
The UCI delegation was led by Dr Henry Ddungu, the Head, Division of Medical Oncology and Haematology and facilitated by Mr. Mihir Vora Founder and CEO of Magnus Medi.
Dr. Ramaswamy N. V a Senior Consultant – Hematology and Hemato Oncology and the Director Hemotologist at Aster Medcity, led the presentation, discussing the latest trends and technologies in bone marrow transplant.
Dr. Ramaswamy who holds more than two decades of experience, in the management of malignant and non-malignant diseases of the blood, in patients of all ages also answered various questions fielded by the various UCI healthcare professionals.
Aster Medcity is one of South India’s largest quaternary care healthcare centres and it is the first JCI-accredited quaternary care multispecialty hospital in the state and combines the best of talent and technology to provide holistic treatment with a multidisciplinary approach.
Speaking at the conference, Dr. Nixon Niyonzima, the head of the Department of Research and Training at UCI said the conference jump off point in shaping the UCI as an internationally recognised centre of excellence in advancing comprehensive cancer management in Africa.
“Our goal here is to enable access to bone-marrow transplants for more patients. Remember bone-marrow transplantation is not just for just cancer patients; it’s also applicable to many other benign haematology conditions, such as sickle cell disease, plastic anaemia, and several other diseases that currently have no cure,” Dr. Niyonzima said.
He added that the expensive treatment options, only available out of the country were limiting access to the life-saving procedure and therefore knowledge exchange programmes such as Aster Medcity and Magnus Medi were vital.
“On average it takes up to US$20,000 to US$50000 to get a bone marrow transplant out of Uganda. That means that less than 0.1% of all Ugandans are going to be able to access bone-marrow transplants,” Dr Niyonzima added.
The head of department also reported that with support from the Government of Uganda and other partners, UCI was in the advanced stages of putting up a bone-marrow transplant centre.
“We have started construction of a transplant facility funded by the African Development Bank, and we hope that within three years, we will be able to make the first patient begin on the first steps towards the first transplant in Uganda,” he said.
Defining new avenues of Cooperation in Bone marrow transplant
The three institutions also discussed areas of cooperation that include the training of medical doctors, nurses, technicians, and other health care professionals, visiting consultants/experts/advisors, & exchange of faculty members/academic staff.
Additionally, there will be an exchange of post-graduate trainees/fellows and other mutually benefit projects like joint conferences, and clinical or research collaborations.
Accordingly, the partnership will culminate in Aster Medcity Hospital and Magnus Medi assisting the Uganda Cancer Institute in putting up its own Bone-Marrow Transplant unit, which will save many Ugandans from travelling abroad.
Magnus Medi is India’s only facilitator which is accredited by NABH (Quality Council of India) & IATA for medical value travel.
Magnus Medi started with East Africa and has expanded to South Africa and Bangladesh and the medical tourism facilitator reports that it has over 5000 persons assisted served.
In Africa, one in every 12 patients is a carrier of the sickle cell trait, meaning that the continent has very many patients with sickle cell disease. And for many of these, they die before their 20th birthday.
UCI hopes that the creation of a bone marrow transplant centre will create treatment options for patients with plastic anaemia, multiple myeloma, and leukaemia.
In addition, that will also offer options to other residents of the East African region and Sub-Saharan Africa.
For his part, Dr Ddungu has identified a team of experts, doctors, nurses, and laboratory technicians among others who are undergoing a series of training and a comprehensive plan for establishing an international standard BMT centre.
For all the latest healthcare industry news from Africa and the World, subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, and YouTube Channel, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, and like us on Facebook.
