OAUTHC leukaemia centre provides care and hope for patients

HAMEED OYEGBADE writes on how the leukaemia centre at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital in Ile-Ife has been providing care for patients and giving hope.

Amaka Etiku is a Leukaemia patient and she has been battling the disease for the past 13 years. Amaka lives in Lagos but she has been a regular face at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital in Ile-Ife since 2004. She must visit the hospital at a regular interval to collect her drugs to stay alive. She gets the drugs free of charge in spite of the high cost of the drugs. 

“The doctors here are excellent and they are taking good care of me and other patients. We get the drugs free of charge because they were donated by a nongovernmental organization -Max Foundation. The drugs are not available off the counter,” Amaka told Daily Trust.

Amaka added, “The name of the drug I’m using is Glivec. I must use four tablets daily. I consume one pack in a month and it costs between N600,000 and N700,000. Where would I get such money to spend on drugs? I’m alive because I’m getting the drug free. So, despite the pain, I’m happy that I can get the drug free.” 

Salisu Abdalahi is another Leukaemia patient. His situation has degenerated and he can no longer hear because the disease has affected his ear. His brother, Awal Abdalahi brought him to OAUTH Ife from Kano State. Awal was very delighted that he could get the drugs for Salisu free of charge but the pains of moving his brother from Kano to Ife would not vanish from their memory as he narrated his travail on the way.  

“We came from Kano. I brought my brother, Salisu, who is suffering from Leukaemia. We were referred to OAUTH Ife from Aminu Kano General Hospital because they said the drugs he needs are only available in OAUTH. The drug is N700,000 but we are getting it free. This gesture has saved many lives. We experienced serious difficulties in bringing him here but at least we are glad that we got the drugs.”

Like Amaka and Salisu, there are over 1,000 Leukaemia patients receiving treatment at the OAUTH Ife who must take some very expensive drugs such as Imatinib (Glivec) Nilotinib (Tasigna)/Dasatinib (Sutent) or Bosutini (Bosulif) depending on the stage of the disease in the blood. They get the drugs free because it was donated by a nongovernmental organization, Max Foundation, based in the United States of America.     

Dr Rahaman Bolarinwa, a Consultant Haematologist is the Head of Department of Haematology at the OAUTH Ife, where patients with issues relating to blood disorder are diagnosed, treated, managed and monitored.

Bolarinwa said, “For the treatment of Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia, (CML) OAUTH has relative advantage. The drugs for the treatment of this CML are only available here in this hospital free of charge. Also, OAUTH is equipped with necessary facilities for the diagnosis and monitoring of the patients with these disorders. These gave us the advantage over other tertiary health institutions in the country.”

He explained that CML is a blood cancer and that it may take some time before the patient would get to know about it. According to him, “Most of our patients are usually picked up at a later stage in the development of the disease because in Nigeria, we do not have the habit of routine medical checkup. The detection of CML is by doing routine checkup. It is possible to detect it earlier because CML comes in three phases.”

Bolarinwa said, “The first phase is the early stage known as chronic phase in which the patient may not know anything because there may be no significant symptom except that the blood count is high. The second phase is known as accelerated phase in which there would be escalation of the initial symptoms. The patient can come with blindness and hearing loss. This may occur as a result of the blockage of the small vessels that supply the hearing vessels. The third phase is most debilitating and it is known as blastic transformation phase. At the point of the third phase, there would be shortage of blood, bleeding and serious infection and if care is not taken, death is the result in a short time.”

He noted that in the past, patients with CML used to die within four years until the new treatment and the drugs were discovered and made available for them.

“Before now, once a patient is diagnosed of CML, within 2 or 3 years, he is dead. But these drugs have revolutionalised the treatment and in fact, the patients that we have been managing since 2002 are still alive till today. Though the drugs are very expensive, our patients are getting them free because a nongovernmental organization based in the United States donated the drugs to us.”

He explained that the head of the Department of Dermatology, Professor Mohiz Durosinmi, facilitated the gesture of the Max Foundation that donated the drugs. The patients lauded Professor Mohiz for his efforts in rescuing them from Leukaemia. They also commended Max Foundation for the donation.

Mr. Bello Maruff, the representative of Max Foundation who is in charge of the Max Station in Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone, said Max Foundation was founded in 1997 by an Argentine woman who lost her 17-year-old son, Max, to CML. Bello explained that the woman established the Foundation to save patients of Leukaemia.

“The Foundation has been catering for patients across the world. In Nigeria, we have over 1,000 patients and we are giving them the drugs free of charge. We receive the drugs quarterly. We were given a waiver during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo and once the drugs arrive at the airport, DHL takes them to the OAUTH in Ife. Unfortunately, the last one sent to us in July was seized by the Nigerian Custom Service.”

“We are still using the ones we have in the store while begging the Customs Service to release the drugs before the ones in the store will finish. If the drugs are not released by the time we exhaust the one available now, the patients would not be able to get the drugs and the result will be bad. We have presented all the necessary papers to Custom but they have not released the drugs. We also hope that they would keep the drugs in proper condition pending the time they would release them so that the drugs will not lose potency.”

As the patients of Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia in different parts of Nigeria battle for their lives, they also face untold hardship and psychological trauma in accessing medical care. However, with the little reprieve provided by the OAUTH, their joy cannot be quantified as they continue to commend doctors at the OAUTH and the Max Foundation for giving their lives a meaning.