In response, the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs was engaged by the American Cancer Society to partner with governments and cancer control organizations in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda to adapt the Society’s U.S.-based patient education materials for an East African audience. The materials and an online toolkit they developed provide critical and evidence-based information about cancer, its diagnosis and treatment, and caregiving.
In some parts of Africa, many people believe cancer is a punishment for a sin or the result of witchcraft or a curse. In some instances, a cancer diagnosis is far more stigmatizing than a diagnosis of HIV.
The African materials are geared at those who have already been diagnosed and their families, and they directly counter the misconceptions found in each country. Cancer isn’t contagious, the materials explain. A biopsy doesn’t spread the cancer; it helps diagnose it. Radiation therapy doesn’t burn a hole in the body.
