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NAIROBI, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The East African Development Bank (EADB) on Friday launched a training scheme in Kenya for 600 cancer and mental health specialists in the region.
Finance and health ministers from the region and industry chiefs attended the launch of the initiative aimed at bridging the skills gap.
In his opening remarks, Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Health, Cleopa Mailu, said that capacity development was crucial to the strengthening of response to cancer and mental disorders that have spiked in the east African region.
"The East African region has experienced significant rise in the burden of cancer and neurological disorders hence the need for highly qualified specialists to assist in diagnoses, treatment and care of these ailments," Mailu said.
The scheme will be carried out in partnership with the British Council and the Royal College of Physicians.
It will train 600 cancer and mental health specialists over a period of four years, focusing on early detection, research and treatment of cancer and neurological disorders.
Mailu said the specialists will be deployed to rural health facilities across the eastern African region where the burden of cancers and mental disorders has increased against a backdrop of infrastructural and personnel hiccups.
"This region is faced with an acute shortage of clinicians to treat cancers and neurological disorders. The new training scheme is a welcome step to increase the proportion of specialists dealing with these killer diseases," said Mailu.
Kenya's cancer burden stands at 39,000 cases annually followed by Tanzania and Uganda that have recorded 30,000 and 28,000 cases respectively every year.
Likewise, Kenya has the highest number of oncologists in the region that stands at 14 followed by 12 and 8 in Uganda and Tanzania respectively.
Mailu said that strategic partnership between government, industry and academia was an imperative to scale up investments in training and research on non-communicable diseases.
His remarks were echoed by EADB Director General, Vivienne Yeda, who said the regional private sector had devoted significant resources to strengthen health systems in the wake of rising cancer burden.
"Investments in training and research will not only bridge skills gap but also stimulate research on effective screening, treatment and care of cancer and other non-communicable diseases," Yeda said. Enditem
