Abidjan, The executive director of the non-governmental organization (NGO) “Enfants et Seniors”, Nassy Touré, pleads for the subsidy of chemotherapy for children with cancer in Côte d’Ivoire.
Ms. Touré launched this appeal on Saturday January 22, 2022, during a ceremony to give gifts to children with cancer in the pediatric department of the University Hospital Center (CHU) of Treichville.

“Chemotherapy (also called chemo) costs between 500,000 and 800,000 FCFA. So for a modest family it is very complicated. Moms are often abandoned by their husbands due to high chemotherapy costs and prescription costs. This is why we call on the authorities to look into this situation”, she underlined.

Chemotherapy works by killing cancer cells wherever they are in the body, including those that have not been detected by imaging tests. It acts either by destroying them directly, or by preventing them from multiplying.

Each year, cancer is diagnosed in some 400,000 children and adolescents aged 0 to 19. The most common forms are leukemia, brain cancers, lymphomas and solid tumors such as neuroblastoma and Wilms tumor, according to the World Health Organization.

Source: Agence Ivoirienne de Presse