‘Nigeria has less than 100 trained radiation therapists to treat cancer’

The Radiographers Registration Board of Nigeria (RRBN) said that the country has less than 100 trained radiation therapists to diagnose and treat cancer.

This just has the Global Cancer Observatory disclosed that Nigeria has one the highest cancer mortality rates across the World with approximately four out of five cases resulting in death.

RRBN registrar Prof Mark Okeji while speaking at the maiden Cancer Awareness Summit organised by the board yesterday in Abuja raised concern that despite the huge investment by the current administration to improve access to radiotherapy facilities, the country does not have adequate radiographers to mann the facilities as there are less than 5000 radiographers in the country.

He said “Notwithstanding huge capital investment by the current administration to revive radiotherapy facilities across the country and some intervention by the private sector, the training of radiographers who are critical players in cancer diagnosis and treatment has been suboptimal. In total there are less than 5000 radiographers in Nigeria and less than 100 trained therapist for a population of 200million citizens.”

Okeji further bemoaned the high cost of diagnosing and treating cancer in Nigeria saying, cancer patients in Nigeria suffer the greatest economic burden with little or no government support as the treatment course from diagnosis, staging, treatment, and follow-ups is beyond the reach of the middle class in Nigeria.

He said “cancer to many Nigerians means instant death sentence despite the fact that it is curable when detected early. The major reasons for late presentation of cancer rest on the prohibitive costs of diagnostic modalities to be borne out-of-pocket by the patients, for example, a CT scan costs about N60,000 excluding the cost of other laboratory tests.”

He, however, called on the government to invest more in the training of radiographers and also subsidize radiotherapy facilities which according to him run into billions of dollars.

The Minister of State Health Ekumankama Joseph while declaring the summit open also admitted that although the government has been putting in lots of efforts to increase access to radiotherapy in the country, unfortunately, there is not enough radiotherapist to manage the equipment.

He mentioned that by the International Atomic Energy Agency standard, Nigeria needs not less than 3000 radiotherapists and many more diagnostic radiographers but unfortunately the country has less than 1000 radiotherapists in the country.

Joseph however called on the board to work closely with the ministry so as to increase the number of radiotherapists in the country.

The minister disclosed plans by the ministry to submit a memo at the Federal Executive Council to revive the cancer centers across the geopolitical zones to reduce medical tourism.