The mammography camper
The Ruvuma Association has always been committed to supporting Tanzania on a medical level. In that country, out of a population of about 59 million people, in addition to the lack of work, access to education and the inability to have access to everything that we in the West take for granted, such as food and medicines, thousands of people continue to die of diseases due to the inability to have access to the necessary treatment and a total lack of prevention. Like the tumor, for example. Data from the World Health Organization confirm that, in 2018, 4,362 men fell ill with prostate cancer, while 3,067 women from breast cancer. For many of them, this means death, as most of them could never afford expensive chemotherapy.
Thanks to the patient and constant activity of our staff in Tanzania, we were able to introduce the concept of breast cancer prevention, unfortunately widespread among Tanzanian women, to the population of the area surrounding the hospital. Some time ago, thanks to the contacts that Dr. Giuseppe Travaglini and Dr. Giorgio Guerra have with the health facilities of Romagna, we asked the Rimini ASL to purchase a fully equipped camper for the Mobile Mammography Service. An Italian radiologist technician went to Mbweni to train local technicians. Since last January 2020, the mammogram camper is ready to carry out free screenings to detect symptoms of breast cancer for women and prostate cancer for men. The camper will become itinerant, both at the other health facilities of the Archdiocese and in isolated villages, where it will screen the previously notified population. The reports are made immediately by the doctor who performs the ultrasound and who, in case of suspicion, directs the patients to the hospital where they will do further in-depth examinations.