| We met Lucia Syokau Muli in Makueni, south of Nairobi: she found out she had breast cancer at the age of 27. She explained us how she is dealing with her diagnosis and the challenges she faces accessing treatment. Cost is one of Lucia’s biggest worries, she tells SWI when we meet outside the Empower cancer clinic at the county hospital. The biggest financial strain is the recurring cost of trastuzumab, which Swiss pharma firm Roche sells as Herceptin and is credited with dramatically improving survival rates. Although it's been around for more than two decades, it remains unaffordable for many people in Kenya, where some 45% of the population live below the World Bank’s poverty line of $2.15 a day. One of the recommended 18 cycles cost more than double Lucia's monthly income. She isn't alone. The cost of treatment is one of the biggest challenges facing doctors who have to make difficult decisions of whether to prescribe a treatment that will save a patient's life but plunge them into poverty. --- swissinfo.ch is the international branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Its role is to report on Switzerland and to provide a Swiss perspective on international events. For more articles, interviews and videos visit swissinfo.ch or subscribe to our YouTube channel: Website: http://www.swissinfo.ch Channel: http://www.youtube.com/swissinfovideos Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=swissinfovideos |
SWI swissinfo.ch – the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC).
Since 1999, swissinfo.ch has fulfilled the federal government’s mandate to distribute information about Switzerland internationally, supplementing the online offerings of the radio and television stations of the SBC. Today, the international service is directed above all at an international audience interested in Switzerland, as well as at Swiss citizens living abroad.
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