Rama, cancer patient, finds no treatment in war country

(Reporting by Faris al-Rifai; Translation by Yusra Ahmed)

Rama al-Hamwi, a 30- year-old lady from Hama, a university graduated from Economy college in Aleppo, live difficult life as she suffers of cancer besides the war circumstances which limit her chances to receive treatment. 

“In the beginning of 2011, I started to feel difficulty in hearing in my left ear, in the beginning I received treatment for infection and congestion, till I started to suffer of headache with no response to analgesics, when the ENT specialist requested an MRI for head, to discover that a tumor situated above the palate, and it was confirmed to be cancer by biopsy.” 

Rama added that she received chemotherapy and Radiotherapy and improved for 2 years, however the follow-up imaging showed thickening at the tumor location, and it was confirmed to be a cancer again and I received Chemo and radiotherapy again. 

Rama explained that she lived difficult live with lack of financial resources preventing her from receiving treatment. She was forced to sell her and her mother’s jewelries to afford for the treatment, as she would need 6 courses of chemotherapy, each one needs staying in hospital for 4 days to follow up, and the cost of treatment $ 5000 , almost half the amount are available, but there is a need for the rest. 

Rama mentioned that patients of cancer in Syria suffer more during the Syrian crisis, " before the medication factories were able to provide enough medications, but now medications are available by traders only, who don’t care about patients, and sell expired and ineffective medications".

Rama added that there is no hospital for treating tumors and cancer in hama, she appealed to the humanitarian and relief organization to look after people who suffer of cancer and chronic diseases and offer them the treatment they need. 

It is estimated that 18000 people get affected of cancer yearly, which is high compared to other Arab countries, World Health Organization (WHO) explained that might have been resulted from the deterioration in health status of the country, besides destroying most of the hospitals and medical centres, as almost 700 medical facilities became out of service.

In May’s report, the EU commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis management reported that 200 thousand patients of chronic disease died in Syria as result of lack of treatment. It mentioned that almost half of Syrian doctors left the country.