HARARE - Sungura superstar Tongai Moyo who has been battling with cancer has been released from hospital after receiving the long-awaited Rituximab drug which treats Non Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer.
In an interview with the Daily News yesterday, Moyo said the drug which was administered on Saturday would be administered four times on weekly intervals. When the Daily News crew arrived at St Anne’s hospital where he is recuperating, scores of people were outside his ward, eagerly awaiting their chance to see the Naye-fame artist.“The drug was administered yesterday (Saturday) and I feel much better now. I will be released tomorrow (Monday) as the doctors still have to monitor my progress. “They have to keep me here because this is my first time to use this drug so they want to monitor my progress closely and when they are satisfied they will release me,” Moyo said. A cheerful Moyo, who chatted animatedly while munching a meal of fresh buns and milk said the drug had far much better benefits than chemotherapy because it worked on destroying the cancer cells but left his body fit, while the latter attacked his body cells resulting in the loss of hair and appetite.
He expressed gratitude towards Minister of Information and Publicity Webster Shamu who is also patron of Zimbabwe Union of Musicians who provided the much-needed funds to procure the drug. “Ever since last year, I have been working almost every weekend to raise $15 000 to buy this drug but I failed.
“Can you imagine that when I collapsed last week, it did not take time for the money to materialise thanks to Minister Shamu,” a grateful Dhewa as he is known by his fans said. “As you can see I have all of my energy and I even have my taste buds, chemotherapy destroys even some of my body cells but this drug only works directly on the cancer,” Dhewa chuckled. Dhewa said the whole experience taught him that God in his infinite wisdom was the Lord of all possibilities.
“I know that there are so many people praying for me. I even attended the healing school at United Family International Church and I just know that God cannot let all these people be ashamed,” a recovering Dehwa said. Muchina Muhombe as he is affectionately known by his legion of fans said the drug administered to him would make him healthy again adding that it was nothing short of a miracle that the drug imported from South Africa arrived on time.
He told the Daily News that, the lifesaving drug took up to two weeks to be imported, bringing to light how the health delivery system in the country had collapsed. Moyo’s case is only but a drop in the ocean of the number of people suffering from cancer but do not have access to treatment.
According to a national conference on cancer prevention and control organised by the Cancer Association of Zimbabwe in September, cancer was now killing more people than HIV and Aids, TB and malaria combined globally. The association called on government to pour resources into rehabilitating equipment and the two main cancer treatment stations Mpilo Hospital in Bulawayo and Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare.
According to statistics made available by the cancer association, at least 7000 cases of cancer are recorded each year but only 700- 1500 of these cases are treated. The association observed that HIV and Aids augmented the rate of cancer with 60 percent of new cancers in Zimbabwe being associated with HIV and Aids. Treatment of cancer in Zimbabwe is also hampered by prohibitive costs.
For instance it costs a cancer patient an average of $600 per session while a patient usually requires up to six sessions. In the face of these prohibitive costs, cancer sufferers who are not as fortunate as Dhewa end up losing their lives while others like Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe who is also battling with cancer, receive treatment outside the country where health delivery systems are more accessible.
Patients need between $2 500 and $3 000 for a treatment cycle against the background that every year 1 855 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer while 1 286 succumb to the disease. Developed countries have since adopted a vaccine that is administered to women before they are sexually active, but Zimbabwe is lagging behind as government cannot afford the drug with Ministry of Health officials saying the vaccine might be introduced in two years’ time at the earliest.
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