It is part of Merck Cancer Access Program aiming to increase the number of oncologists in the continent
Merck kicked off its Africa Oncology Fellowship Program in partnership with Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) and University of Nairobi. Reportedly, in addition to African doctors who would undergo this fellowship, Merck will provide 10 Indian physicians from rural areas with the same fellowship programme, aiming to improve access to quality cancer care across India.
During the inauguration of the programme at MUHS, Rasha Kelej, Chief Social Officer of Merck Healthcare said, “We are pleased to start the ‘Merck Africa Oncology Fellowship’ initiative as part of our Cancer Access Program which aims to increase the inadequate number of medical oncologists hence improve access to cancer care in Africa.”
Lack of financial means is not the only challenge in Africa, but a scarcity of trained healthcare professionals capable to tackle the prevention, early diagnosis and management of cancer at all levels of the healthcare systems is even a bigger challenge.
Prof Arun Jamkar, Vice Chancellor of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS), during his address, emphasised, “We truly believe that the only way to effectively prevent, detect and treat the rising number of cancers in Africa is through establishing Public Private Partnership (PPP) models between Health Ministries, Academia, and the Industry in implementing successful programs such as this partnership with Merck to provide MUHS Merck Africa Oncology Fellowship with the aim to improve quality and accessibility of the Cancer care in the continent.”
According to World Health Organization (WHO), by 2020, there are expected to be 16 million new cases of cancer every year, 70 per cent of which will be in developing countries where governments are least prepared to address the growing cancer disease burden and where survival rates are often less than half those of developed countries. “Cancer is expected to have a huge economic and social burden on Africa. This will lead into a huge challenge since Africa has its share of communicable and neglected tropical diseases (NTD) and our healthcare system is built to only tackle them,” said Prof. Isaac Kibwage, Principal of College of Health Sciences – University of Nairobi.
“University of Nairobi is delighted to partner with Merck and MUHS to support the ‘MUHS and Merck Africa Oncology Fellowship Program’ for medical doctors across Africa starting with Kenya. Merck Cancer Access Program will add tangible value to improve quality of cancer care,” Kibwage added.
Merck is planning fund ten doctors from Sub- Saharan Africa for this ‘MUHS Merck Oncology Fellowship Program’ in partnership with MUHS, India as a part of their “Cancer Control Program”.
“Engagement in cancer care needs a substantial improvement in infrastructure and increase in the number of specialised and trained workforce, which does not exist in many, if not most, sub-Saharan Africa countries. For example: in Kenya there are only 13 oncologists, all based in Nairobi for population of 47 million; which means there is one oncologist per 3.6 million population. While in UK around 13 oncologists per one million people. Moreover, in Ethiopia there are only four oncologists, all based in Addis Ababa for a population around 100 million,” Rasha Kelej, Chief Social Officer of Merck Healthcare emphasised.