The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has joined forces with the Rebecca Foundation to improve Childhood Cancer treatment in Ghana. 

The First Lady, Rebecca Akufo Addo and the NHIA’s Chief Executive, Dr. Lydia Dsane Selby initiated the joint efforts on September 27, 2021, that aims at detecting and treating Childhood Cancer. 

This was when a team from the NHIA led by the Chief Executive, paid a courtesy call on the First Lady and officially invited her to the 2021 NHIS Week Celebration as the Keynote Speaker.

Dr. Lydia Dsane Selby lamented, “Many children in Africa do not get the cancer care they require because their parents cannot afford it.” 

She categorised the four main childhood cancers as Burkitt Lymphoma, bone marrow cancer often seen in the jaw,Wilms tumour, cancer of the kidney, Retinoblastoma, cancer of the back of the eye and Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, cancer of the blood.

All these, according to her are mainly in children under seven (7) years and consented that over 90% is curable.The NHIA Chief Executive said, “No child deserves to die of cancer,” hence the joint efforts to fight the disease in Ghana.

The First Lady, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo Addo welcomed the initiative and reaffirmed her Foundation’s commitment to do more in fighting Childhood Cancer.

Meanwhile, the NHIA is a step ahead in fighting breast cancer, as a specialist anti-breast cancer drug called Herceptinhas been added to the NHIS medicines list, elevating Ghana as the first country in the Sub-Saharan African Region, to do so. 

Many women who could not afford the cost of breast cancer treatment have so far benefited from the NHIS package.