Mauritania: Where cancer patients have no medical insurance

Ninety percent of cancer patients in Mauritania, most of whom are poor, have no medical insurance to help them bear the high costs of treatment.

Jusoor Post sheds light on the suffering of those patients who are in need of the state’s help to overcome their medical conditions. In an interview, the mother of Gamila bin Mohamed, an 11-year-old child who has been suffering from Burkitt lymphoma for five years, told Jusoor Post that she and her daughter have never received assistance from the state despite their economic hardship.

“My father had the same disease before and died as a result. We have difficult conditions [of life]. In addition to the illness of the little girl, we have several disabled people,” the mother said.

“We are tired of treatment,” she added, noting that financial support is given to her from charities combating cancer, like the Nouakchott-based Association for the Support of Cancer Patients (AMAPC Chiva), where her child attends parties and celebrations for other young patients.

As for Laleh Bint Al-Jalani, a 48-year-old lady suffering from colon cancer, she previously applied for insurance but has received nothing yet. “I do not have the capabilities to [financially] treat this disease, but God has made use of these associations that always help me.”

However, the government provides her a 50% discount for the chemical injections, she added, noting that a government hospital also provides non-expensive treatment options.

The association fully bears the costs of treating the patient until recovery, besides providing partial assistance as it gives the patient the costs of medicine and medical tests three times a week, the Chiva spokesperson Ahmad Labbah Babanh told Jusoor Post.

He added that the government also contributes by providing financial help by bearing the full costs of radiotherapy and 50% of the costs of chemotherapy at the National Oncology Center, which specializes in helping the most vulnerable patients.

Babanh clarified that the patient goes through many stages of treatment, and this is what makes it the most expensive, especially since most patients are poor. He noted that the main obstacle to the association is the absence of a fixed donation.

“We are a non-governmental youth association and depend on the assistance we provide at our own expense and other charitable money. [However,] there is no fixed funding, so our assistance capabilities remain somewhat limited and restricted,” he added.

In July 2022, Mauritanian Health Minister Mokhtar Ould Dahi revealed that the number of people with cancer in the 4.6-million-people country reached 1,452, of whom women made up 54%, stressing that 90% of those patients do not have any medical insurance, Mauritanian news agency Al Akhbar reported.

"This poses a major problem with the high cost of treating this type of disease,” he added after laying the foundation stone of a new hospital to be set up by the Ithar Association for supporting cancer patients to be a second place where patients receive treatment besides the National Oncology Center.

Mauritanian news website Esserage reported in June 2021 that official statistics showed that the disease is diagnosed at more than 100 cases per month in the year 2020.

Before establishing the National Oncology Center in late 2008, Mauritanians were forced to travel abroad for treatment with much higher costs. However, last year, one of the two linear accelerators at the center broke down for weeks, affecting dozens of patients.