Shadow in perpetuity book cover.
Cancer has in recent times acquired an eerie omnipresence in the minds of our countrymen as they see all kinds of personalities, big and small go down with the disease.
The mood in our country today is governed by the fear of cancer through rumours peddled by people who most of the time lack the right information and know-how that can guide the fidgety population about what is actually going on.
In this panic, there is a tendency to put in place poorly thought out facilities meant for cancer treatment.
A book authored and published by Prof. Nicholas Abinya, a medical oncologist and Professor of Medicine at the University of Nairobi captures all these.
In the book titled Shadow in Perpetuity; The Hard Journey With Cancer, Prof Abinya gives readers a candid glimpse into his daily experiences with cancer patients through the case studies and enables them to relate to the experiences.
According to Prof. Abinya, cancer is witty whether locally and abroad.
He says local institutions and experts can cope with the majority of cancer types and that there is need to step up local capacity for this to be achieved.
“Local costs of care should be stepped down to allow meaningful access. Cancer needs patience, understanding and prayers, not chest thumping,” he says.
A Medical Oncology Fellowship Program is offered at the University of Nairobi to train cancer specialists in Africa.
Prof. Abinya, who is the director of the program at UoN urges more and more doctors to enroll to the program that offers scholarship to those willing to join.
Prof. Abinya has also co-authored a book titled Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics with Dr. Odinga Oduol.
The book is intended to give a scientific guide to the use of medicines in the management of common diseases. Unique to this book is the inclusion of emerging and re-emerging diseases like HIV and AIDS, Rift Valley Fever, Ebola/Marburg disease, as well as local diseases of contact like scabies and ringworm.
The book is ideal for medical, dental and pharmacy students as well as other health professionals involved in prescribing of medicines.
The two books will be launched at the University of Nairobi in March this year.
- Log in to post comments
