Public Radio International's The World ran a five-part series last week on cancer in the developing world. Cancer, we learn, is tragically overlooked in such places as Haiti, Uganda, India, and elsewhere. Many people believe that having cancer is a death sentence, and that therefore seeking out medical help is pointless, reports Joanne Silberner, formerly of National Public Radio.
This is as true in Uganda as it is in Haiti. And that insight is one of the virtues of this series. Because Silberner interviews people from around the world, she is able to draw comparisons and look at commonalities in a way that would not have been possible if she had reported in only one of these countries.
We're accustomed to hearing about the drastic limitations within which health workers must operate in developing countries, but even so, some of the revelations in this series are stunning. Silberner interviews an oncologist in Uganda who, not long ago, was the only oncologist in that country of more than 30 million people. Twenty-two thousand people get cancer in Uganda each year, she reports; and 20,000 die–a staggering death rate that includes cancers that would be curable if patients sought help and doctors could provide it.
In a bit of a departure, the fifth part of the series is not about cancer itself, but about the extreme pain that must be endured by people with cancer in developing countries in which morphine is in very short supply. Even that simple thing–standard, low-tech pain relief for people in pain–is difficult to provide.
Much of the attention of international donors, Silberner reports, focuses on AIDS and malaria–diseases that we all know are common in many developing countries. But many of us are not thinking about cancer as an important disease in those places. And apparently that includes not only those of us who listen to the radio, but the donors who could do something about it.
One small quibble: Below each of the podcasts of the series is what looks like a transcript. Don't be fooled; it isn't. It's part transcript, part paraphrase. Memo to PRI: Please label these things as summaries, so we're not fooled. Or, better yet, give us the transcripts. These are already close to transcripts; why not take a bit more time and make them exact?
The five episodes are collected here.
-Paul Raeburn
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