A multi-national Workshop on Cancer Epidemiology meets Infectiology in Africa was jointly hosted by the African Cancer Registry Network, the Institute of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Informatics at the Medical Faculty of Martin-Luther-University-Halle, Germany and the Department of Pathology, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda.
There is a gap in linking cancer control and the high prevalence of infectious diseases which still exists in Africa. The Workshop aimed to facilitate development of a consortium including cancer experts from sub Saharan Africa and infectious diseases scientists, in order to establish a research collaboration linking international experts to tackle the challenges of the increasing number of cancer patients in sub Saharan Africa who have underlying causative infectious diseases. This conference will set the ground for networking, assessment of available information on cancer and its infectious causes, and the exchange of ideas and development of activities.
This workshop helped develop projects linking population-based data on cancer and infectious diseases in Africa to generate hypotheses and identify possible options for interventions. In addition, the AFCRN Member Registries reviewed their activities in 2017-2018 (with a focus on infectious causes of cancer), policies and membership criteria; and plan activities for the Network in 2019.
The Workshop was sponsored by the VolkswagenStiftung Foundation.
15th Oct 2018
7-18 January, Cecile Ingabire conducted an evaluation on the Ouagadougou Cancer Registry. Together with the staff from the OCR, Ms Ingabire visited numbers of source of data in Ouagadougou, reviewed the case finding methods, met with the relevant stakeholders to discuss the childhood cancer registration project. Subsequently set the stage for restarting cancer registration in Ouagadougou.
5-15 February, Ms Ingabire performed the same activities with the Abidjan Cancer Registry team for the childhood cancer registration project.
7-18 May, Ms Ingabire performed the same activities with the Brazzaville Cancer Registry team in Congo. Cecile travelled to six sites to improve the completeness and quality of the data collection.
8-18th January, Mr Eric Chokunonga (Zimbabwe National CR), accompanied by Mr Nathan Okerosi (Nairobi CR), preformed an in-depth inspection in two Tanzania district, following the discussion after the first round visits in November 2017. These two districts were Dodoma Municipal district and the Mbeya (Mbeya City and Mbeya district). The outcome was that AFCRN should support the establishment of the cancer registry in Mbeya Refferal Hospital, using the money from Bloomberg. The decision of whether to use the limited funding on Dodoma or on Dar es Salaam lies in the hands of the MoH of Tanzania (TBC).
Dr Parkin evaluated the Zambia National Cancer Registry on 15-17 January. The visit was undertaken as the final review of the UICC-funded project to improve cancer registration, specifically to create a population-based registry for Lusaka district. Conclusion was that after 40 years, there is finally a population based registry in Zambia capable of producing incidence rates that can be used to prepare national estimates of incidence, mortality and prevalence. If the Lusaka registry remains, the next phase will be to replicate the model in other provincial centres – one at a time. The experience of the Lusaka staff will be invaluable in training ad supervising such expansion.
Dr Parkin visited the Ouagadougou Cancer Registry (Burkina Faso) from 18 – 21 March. It was observed that the ministre de la Santé was very supportive and the staff were passionate about the work. The Sanofi Espoir Foundation has provided the funding for the refurbishment of registry premises.