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Multiple Myeloma is simply known as cancer of the bone marrow. Multiple Myeloma is one of the most dangerous killer cancer diseases and very expensive to manage in the world.
In a day workshop organized by the Calistus Multiple Myeloma Foundation, held in Enugu state, Ugochukwu Obodougo drew attention of the government on the pains, sufferings and economic burden occasioned by the killer cancer.
Ugochukwu recalled the experience of their father, Late Calistus Obodougo who suffered and died as a result of the cancer; hence the birth of Calistus Multiple Myeloma Foundation in 2018.
The idea for this foundation started sometime in 2011 when my father started having health problems. We were moving from one hospital to another and they told us he is having spinal cord injury and he need to travel to India for surgical operation to strengthen his back bone. But we decided to take him to US where he was diagnosed multiple myeloma and after eight moths he died in US. Our experience managing our father later gave birth to our NGO.
He spoke on the outreach of the NGO seeking to help other patients suffering from the cancer and the need to improve the capacity of the health workers in Nigeria.
“Really the disease is in existence but we are not aware. I had the opportunity to visit UNTH and I discovered thirteen patients in 2018. One thing about it is that it bedridden the patient, and before the diagnoses the bone is already dead”, he revealed.
According to a board member of the Calistus Multiple Myeloma Foundation, Henry Chinweuba while speaking on the causes and symptoms of bone marrow cancer noted that sometimes it is mistaken for spinal cord injury which often leads to wrong treatment and subsequent death of the patients in Nigeria.
In his words “every black person has high risk of getting multiple myeloma. Then exposure to chemical is something that we do recklessly in Nigeria and Chemicals like benzene, herbicides, and pesticides; including radiation and genetic disposition exposes one to the cancer” .
“Multiple Myeloma in some cases do not present any symptom. However, it comes with other symptoms like back pain. Severe pain at the back and that’s multiple myeloma is misdiagnosed with spinal cord injury or problem. Outside that we have loss of weight, loss of appetite, vomiting and difficulty in breathing, fever, high prevalent of bone fracture and so on.
Chinweuba further spoke on the cost for the treatment and called on the federal government for intervention especially in the area of awareness.
“Study shows that only about five percent of the world are aware of multiple myeloma. But the problem is that most of the persons that died of the cancer of the bone were not properly diagnosed and that is why the awareness is needed” he said.
“It is important you know that the treatment is not cheap at all. A patient in the University Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu spends close to four hundred thousand naira monthly on drugs alone not on hospital bills, foods and others because some of the drugs cost close to fifty thousand naira and you need it weekly”
