Business Ogun State, U.S to open cancer institute in Sagamu

jeff juwana

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The Ogun Government in collaboration with a U.S. health care provider, HTI Global Cancer Partner, is set to establish a 200-million-dollar Cancer Institute in Sagamu, near Abeokuta. The state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Olaokun Soyinka, who made the disclosure on Wednesday in Abeokuta at a news conference, said the institute would be the first of its kind in Africa.

He said that the institute would be built near the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital in Sagamu. The commissioner said that the proposed institute was being built to tackle the threat posed by cancer.

Soyinka said the establishment of the institute would help to raise public awareness on the disease,and that the institute would also undertake screening, diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients.

According to the commissioner, the institute will also train healthcare providers and conduct research on cancer. Soyinka said the institute would be financed through bills from patients, medical tourists, the state’s health insurance scheme, donor agencies, as well as research sponsored by pharmaceutical companies.

“There are cancer centres and institutes across Africa but I can tell you none of them has a school. “We can get on top of the cancer epidemic in Nigeria and this is one of the ways this can be achieved,” Soyinka said.

The Chairman, Board of Managers of HTI Global Cancer Partners, Dr Bert Petersen, said the establishment of the proposed institute would help to transform Nigeria’s health sector.

He said only 15 per cent out of about 50,000 people diagnosed with cancer yearly in Nigeria survived. The board chairman said that the institute would help to increase the number of cancer survivours in the country.

Petersen said the establishment of the institute would also save Nigerians from the challenges of travelling out of the country for medical attention.

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