Global HOPE: Tackling Childhood Cancer in Africa

On August 9th, 2018, The East African Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellowship program celebrated the graduation of its first class of four fellows in Kampala, Uganda. This was just two months after 6 children and their parents rang the survivor bell at the Kamuzu National Referral Hospital in Malawi. Until recently, these milestones in pediatric healthcare in Africa were scarce.

Every year, over 100,000 children in Sub-Saharan Africa develop cancer, and 90% of these children die. In the developed world, children diagnosed with cancer have survival rates of 80% or greater. This enormous disparity in outcomes can be explained by several factors, including a lack of awareness of childhood cancer which is often not diagnosed or discovered late, the scarcity of anti-cancer medicines and a generally inadequate healthcare infrastructure that can’t fully support the complex and multidisciplinary care pediatric cancer requires. Most striking, there is a near-complete absence of trained pediatric hematology-oncology specialists in Africa. Fortunately, efforts are underway to improve this situation.

In February 2017, with a $50 million dollar commitment from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, Texas Children’s Hospital and The Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) launched Global HOPE. Aimed at transforming childhood cancer treatments and survival rates in Africa, Global HOPE has established care in Botswana, Malawi and Uganda through formal partnerships with local Ministries of Health. Expansion to additional countries across the continent are in progress.

The approach is simple and scalable. Utilizing lessons learned from the successes of combating HIV/AIDS in Africa, a major focus of Global HOPE is its strategy to build local capacity through training, education and advocacy to strengthen the existing healthcare infrastructure.  Training of African pediatricians , nurses and other healthcare professionals to become expert at caring for children with cancer is being carried out in Centers of Excellence that emphasize patient centric and multidisciplinary care. Efforts to forge partnerships with governments, corporations and individuals to improve drug access and build state of the art facilities are ongoing. Community outreach efforts have brought hope to hundreds of families that children can survive their diagnosis.

We are training pediatricians through the development of formal Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellowships like the one established in Uganda to train East African physicians. We also have comprehensive train the trainer programs for other pediatric healthcare professionals. Global HOPE is already meeting expectations and having a significant impact. Since the program’s launch in 2016, over 550 African medical professionals have been trained and nearly ,3000 children have been treated. Dr. Joseph Lubega, head of the Fellowship Training Program in Uganda said the effect of the Global HOPE program is already being seen. Doctors and staff members are asking, ‘What is happening? We’re not seeing the number of children dying from cancer we usually do’ “.

Global HOPE remains encouraged by its developing successes and its’ ultimate goal is to eventually achieve pediatric cancer rates equivalent to those in the developed world. To learn more about Global HOPE please visit our website and/or view our brief video.