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Where the Medicine Isn’t

News

Health

Kisenyi Health Center in Kampala, Uganda. (Photo by David Uttley for Direct Relief)
By Amy Weaver

This story first appeared in Amy Weaver’s LinkedIn newsletter, Direct Relief: Hope Ahead.

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Just before leaving for Africa, I finished John Green’s new book, Everything Is Tuberculosis. One line stayed with me: “Where are the drugs? The drugs are where the disease is not… and where is the disease? The disease is where the drugs are not.”

That paradox was evident as I entered the Global HOPE pediatric cancer ward in Kampala, Uganda.

Courage in Kampala

Mulago National Referral Hospital in Uganda. (Photo courtesy of Texas Children’s Hospital)

I met children whose courage far outweighed their years, and parents who had put everything else in life on hold to be by their side. Some families had fled war in Sudan, while others had traveled hundreds of miles from Eritrea and Ethiopia. None could afford care.

Yet here, in close quarters filled with IV poles and the sounds of children enduring nausea and fatigue, world-class care is offered, free of charge. Ugandan doctors, trained through fellowships with Texas Children’s Hospital, are building extraordinary local capacity. They are true heroes.

But medical training is not enough without the medicines and diagnostics that make treatment possible. That is where partnerships matter. Through Teva Pharmaceuticals’ donations of essential cancer drugs, and Direct Relief’s logistics to deliver them precisely where they are needed, these doctors can translate their training into lives saved.

Uganda Cancer Institute (Tony Morain/Direct Relief)

The difference is striking: in the United States, more than 80 percent of children with cancer survive. In much of sub-Saharan Africa, fewer than 30 percent do. Thanks to Global HOPE, survival rates are climbing toward the World Health Organization’s goal of 60 percent. In Malawi alone, the program now treats nearly 300 children with cancer each year, provides care for 700 more with blood disorders, and in 2023, delivered 430,000 doses of medicine to over 1,000 young patients.

The statistics lay bare the enormity of the challenge, but also the progress Global HOPE has made, despite steep odds. What I saw in Kampala made John Green’s words feel more like an imperative than an observation: medicines must follow disease, resources must follow need, wherever people are.

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend John Green’s book, Everything Is Tuberculosis. You can also listen to his interview on Masters of Scale.

Coincidentally, I also had the opportunity to join Jeff Berman on Masters of Scale last week.

We discussed taking leaps, navigating change, and the steps that led me to Direct Relief — an organization dedicated to putting medicines where the disease is. I look forward to sharing more on this soon.

-Amy

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