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Scientists from Tanzania, Uganda and Oxford University have teamed up in a new child blood cancer program

Anna Schuh with the AIREAL team in Tanzania

Child blood cancer is a disease that can kill thousands of children every year in sub-Saharan Africa. A subsection of blood cancers known as Epstein-Barr Virus-related lymphomas (or EBV lymphomas) are particularly deadly, and have become the focus of AI-REAL (Aggressive Infection-Related East Africa Lymphoma); a new international global health collaboration which hopes to improve EBV lymphoma treatment and diagnosis.

Traditional but painful and expensive diagnostic procedures, such as invasive needle biopsies, are currently more commonly used in sub-Saharan Africa due to a lack of advanced equipment. Only 29% of hospitals in Tanzania and Uganda have the required surgeons to perform these procedures.

As a result, many children are going undiagnosed and untreated leading to an astonishing 90% death rate from EBV driven lymphomas. But through improved equipment, training and access to advanced diagnostic technologies, AI-REAL aims to turn this 90% death rate into a 90% cure rate.

Prof. Anna Schuh, Professor of Haematology at the University of Oxford leads this new UK-Africa project, which aims to bring the next generation of diagnosis technology to Tanzania and Uganda. Prof. Schuh hopes the in-country testing process for EBV lymphomas can be further developed, in order to improve early diagnosis and chances of survival.

Prof. Schuh and her team will be visiting Africa during the duration of the project to provide training in various techniques and equipment, such as next generation genetic sequencing technology and artificial intelligence tools, with the hope of minimising patient pain and delivering faster diagnoses.

By sharing these best practices and bringing the latest technological advances in genetic testing in country, it is possible to set up effective and affordable cancer diagnostics through the use of simple blood tests to screen for cancer.

This project was launched in February 2020, and is a partnership between the University of Oxford and medical teams in the Muhimbili National Hospital, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, St Mary’s Hospital (Lacor) and Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, with funding from the NIHR RIGHT Programme.

 

 

There are currently 43 pathologists in Tanzania for 56 million people alone, so there is a big need to improve the capacity for early diagnosis through access to diagnostic software and training.

By bringing in these new technologies we hope to train the future generation of clinicians and scientists to speed up diagnosis and improve the lives of millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Prof. Anna Schuh, Project Leader