CDH

Yesterday, we spent the day in the Cancer Diseases Hospital, also known as CDH. CDH was first created in 2007 and just a few months ago they expanded the building to include an additional 250-bed hospital. CDH is the only hospital in Zambia that provides comprehensive cancer care. Cancer is a disease state that was never that prevalent in Zambia until recently, which may partially be due to increasing life spans in the country. The most common types of cancer seen are Kaposi sarcoma (usually due to HIV co-infection), breast cancer and cervical cancer. The main downfall to the pharmacy department in CDH right now is man power; there are simply not enough pharmacists to complete the amount of work that needs to be done. For example, there is only one clinical pharmacist at CDH. This pharmacist verifies chemotherapy doses daily but, because he is responsible for all patients that come through, he does not have enough time in his schedule to do a further work-up of the patient such as assessing interacting drugs and other co-morbidities. There is also not a pharmacist that verifies the chemotherapy doses as they are being prepared. One technician makes all the chemotherapy batches in a day.

The good news is, with the new expansion recently opened, CDH is working to grow and improve its site. It may take a little bit of time for pharmacy to catch up but the department is aware of its weaknesses and is working arduously to overcome them. Observing CDH was another reminder of numerous resources we take for granted in the United States.