By Gracious Chitakata, contributor:

Getting a child undergo a cancer diagnosis at the referral Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) in Blantyre can, sometimes, be time consuming.

On average, it takes a day or two to get the diagnosis done as the hospital has one machine for the task.

Sometimes, a child can undergo the same procedure twice, especially when the first sample goes missing.

Then, there is fear of the unknown, which may engulf the parent or guardian as they see their child’s health deteriorating while waiting for results.

Fortunately, these are things of the past. The past in question is the pre-2023 period.

In 2023, National Bank of Malawi plc donated a chemistry analyser to the hospital, thereby easing some of the challenges that those in the Child Cancer Ward were facing prior to 2023.

The machine brings out accurate and factual results, helping in early detection of cancer in children.

Experts indicate that five common types of cancer that affect children in Malawi are Leukemia, Burkitt Lymphoma (cancer that affects the B lymphocytes, Wilms tumor (cancer of the kidney), Retinoblastoma (cancer of the eye) and Non- Hodgkin Lymphoma.

In Malawi, 500 children are diagnosed with cancer per year, with QECH receiving an average of between 20 and 30 new patients per month.

This came to light when the world commemorated World Cancer Day last month.

That month, the Children’s Cancer Ward, which last year alone made 264 diagnoses, clocked a year and two months after receiving the chemistry analyser.

QECH pediatric oncologist Dr Beatrice Chikaphonya Phiri said the coming of the chemistry analyser has greatly improved their work.

“Usually, we could send the samples to the main lab and, sometimes, the lab did not have reagents to do kidney or liver function tests. There were also some delays because, as you know, the main lab caters for the whole hospital, not just a department.

“But now, you can get the results in one or two hours and, at least, we know we get results that are reflective of the state in which our patients are at that point,” Chikaphonya Phiri explained.

Chikaphonya Phiri said, so far, they have run 550 samples, “and, probably, very few tests would be repeated for the same patient”.

Echoing Chikaphonya Phiri’s sentiments is Pediatrics Department Registrar Dr Nthambose Simango.

He explained that in the past, the main lab would get overloaded or run out of reagents, adding that the other research machine at the facility had a limited number of samples it took, delaying the treatment of patients in the process.

“We were unable to do those tests, delaying management and sometimes treating patients blindly. So, having this machine in the department has enabled us to have consistent availabil