There isn't a single radiotherapy machine in Ivory Coast (AFP)
It’s thought that less than a quarter of people with cancer get diagnosed in Ivory Coast.
The majority of those that do get diagnosed here are already in the late stages of the disease.
More than half don’t come back for treatment because of the cost.
The government recently announced free breast cancer treatment but the head of the National Programme Against Cancer, oncologist Professor Innocent, told me it’s not all free and patients still end up paying a large bulk of it.
The consequences are stark.
In Ivory Coast survival rates are at just 30%.
Compare that with the developed world where, if the breast cancer is caught early, survival rates are close to a 100%.
Even if people can afford treatment, the options are limited.
In the whole of West Africa, only Ghana, Nigeria, Mali and Mauritania have working radiotherapy machines.
Sinanta Awa Traore’s family paid to send her to the US for radiotherapy after she was diagnosed with the advance stages of breast cancer.
When I met her she was hiding her bald head with a colourful beaded wig. She told me she didn’t rate her chance of survival:
“When you get the confirmation, the reality hits you. My children aren’t old. I saw myself leaving too soon, without seeing my children grow up. I saw it as the end. In fact, I saw death facing me.”
