Residents in Jinja City and its suburbs have reported that many people suffering from cancer, brain tumors and heart problems succumb annually to these diseases because of lack of money to access medication.
Without giving figures, the residents complained that owing to scarcity of money vis-a-vis the high medical charges especially in private health units, the ailments have spread unabated and in a situation of no hope for an answer, many regularly die off.
This was revealed during a weeklong medical camp at Afri-Egypt Hospital in Jinja where patients with a number of diseases were given free treatment. Among health problems handled were Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), cancer of the cervix, breast cancer, prostate cancer, plus sensitization and popularisation of family planning.
A former Buikwe woman MP, Dorah Christine Mpiima singled out prostate cancer, breast cancer and cervical cancer as having taken an unprecedentedly high level, with many victims unable to access treatment due to financial constraints.
And a resident of Walukuba identified as Joseph Wanguzi disclosed that many patients do not even bother to get out of their houses on realising that they have the diseases because, in the first place, they know that they cannot get the required money for medical treatment, and so wait to die silently and painfully.
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The hospital administrator, Kuluthum Issa Kassim said the free medical camp is organised annually every first week of March, with a bias on treatment of cancer, as a token of expressing solidarity with women on the International Women’s Day falling on 8th March.