A national cancer register was introduced in Sierra Leone in 2012 to identify and register cancer patients. However, it is extremely difficult to identify cancer sufferers because the focus of the government has been on the high level of infant mortality and epidemic outbreak of diseases such yellow and lassa fever, cholera and meningitis. This has made it difficult for cancer to gain much needed attention.
Also, the country struggles to offer any adequate cancer services. The lack of
modern equipment available for screening and treatment of cancer means that
cancer patients have a very poor prognosis, being neither identified nor registered
within the healthcare system.
We will be working with the national cancer registration department within the ministry of health, as well as other non-governmental organisations to improve the current process of identification and registration of patients.
