INFECTIONS

Both Kerr and Corey Casper, who runs the Uganda Programme on Cancer and Infectious Disease associated with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, say another focus of efforts to tackle this looming cancer epidemic is to try to prevent the cancers caused by infections.

While many cancers are linked to lifestyle factors such as unhealthy diets and smoking, a large number - particularly in Africa - are caused by infections likes hepatitis B and C, which cause liver cancer, and the human papillomavirus (HPV) that causes almost all cervical cancers.

In wealthy countries, having hepatitis vaccines as part of routine childhood immunization programs, and introducing national campaigns programs with new HPV vaccines from drugmakers Merck and GlaxoSmithKline has brought rates of liver and cervical cancer down significantly.

If such nationwide HPV vaccine campaigns could be introduced in Africa, experts say, the effect on rates of death and disease could be dramatic. Global health groups are working with drugmakers on securing a discounted price for HPV shots for poor countries, but getting them to Africa could take years.

Akosua - a name meaning “Sunday” that this patient gives instead of her real name - has no concept yet of how an injection made by a Western pharmaceutical company could have prevented the cancer spreading inside her.

The 48-year-old farmer has cervical cancer and has suffered with a lot of pain and bleeding, but for now the fact that she’s come to the hospital and is seeing an oncologist is foreign territory enough.

“But I’m not afraid,” she says. “I’ve been seen by the doctor now. I know I am in the right place to get the right treatment.”

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By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent