The number of cancer patients seeking oncology referral services in Mozambique has stabilized over the past two years, currently standing at 700 per year, said on Wednesday June 28 a source from the Maputo Central Hospital (HCM).
“According to our statistics, we have, on average, 700 new cases of different types of cancer per year,” which translates into “a monthly average of 60 to 70 patients,” said HCM Oncology Services Director Satish Tulsidás.
Tulsidás was speaking to the press, after the formal ceremony for the completion of the rehabilitation works and equipment of that unit. The numbers show that cancer cases “have been stable,” after having experienced an upward trend until 2021, attributed to increased awareness that led to the demand for health care, he explained.
In addition to the new cases, the unit follows about six thousand patients on an outpatient basis and only subject to control for having already debilitated the disease.
Cervical and breast cancer, in women, and prostate, liver, head and neck, among men, are the most common cancers in patients who seek care at the unit, he said.
The HCM Oncology Services also receives patients transferred from hospitals all over the country for cases in which radiotherapy treatment is needed, since this type of intervention only exists in that unit, he continued. Satish Tulsidás stressed that less complex situations can be treated at the larger hospitals in the central and northern regions of the country, which means that there is no need to transfer to the country’s capital.
Tulsidás pointed out that the HCM Oncology Services currently has 30 beds for hospitalization, but may need more in the coming years, because the knowledge about the disease leads more people to seek diagnosis and medical care.