‘Many new cases of cancer in Khartoum hospitals’: State Minister

The health minister of Khartoum, Mamoun Hemeida, said that the state-run hospitals and clinics each receive new cases of cancer every day, claiming it amounts to 1,000 cases a month.

The minister warned the parliament this week about the growth of breast cancer among the cases of cancer. He claimed that not more than 40 per cent of the patients with breast cancer in Sudan recover from it.

Hamida said that the ministry lacks an official record because the registry of cancer cases does not happen consistently.

The Haniya and Zarra health centres alone are said to receive ten cases a day.

Cancer reports

Also in the past years there was little information available about the exact number of cancer cases in Sudan.

In October 2017, residents of Abu Hamed in northern Sudan’s River Nile state reported an increase in the number of cancer patients in the area. This coincided with an increase in miscarriages and more dying birds.

Residents pointed to companies in the area which allegedly used hazardous chemical substances in their processes.

In May 2014, Radio Dabanga reported about an unusually high rate of cancer in Wadi Halfa. “Fish are dying, and birds drop dead from the sky,” a resident from Wadi Halfa said. “Cyanide spreads through the air, and can reach places over a distance of 150km,” he noted.