This programme is the result of the forward thinking vision of President Felix Tshisekedi Tshilombo to highlight the importance of women’s health in the DRC, and for the DRC to be recognised as a leading country and a bastion for women’s health in Africa. This ambitious project will not only cover cervical and breast cancer, but President Tshisekedi has included free pregnancy and childbirth programmes for all women in the DRC.
Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounts for about 66% (196,000) of estimated global maternal deaths, according to a joint report released by WHO, Unicef, UNFPA and the World Bank Group published in 2019.
Dr Kamba Roger Samuel, minister of Health is very much part of this initiative. The Ministry of Health will oversee and aim to establish health clinics where women health services will count for a major part. This programme will allow millions of Congolese women access to lifesaving healthcare solutions. As part of the initial step of the Universal Health Coverage healthcare system set up in March 2023, free maternal services, and in partnership with Cingulate Medical and MobileODT, it will include free screening and testing for cervical and breast cancers.
Cervical and breast cancers are the top two cancers among women in the DRC. Close to 8,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, with 5,550 dying from it every year. Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, a global region.
President Tshisekedi and the Ministry of Health aim to establish over 1,000 women’s health clinics, enhancing women’s healthcare in the DRC, and positioning the country as a leader in women’s health in Africa. This programme will allow millions of Congolese women access to lifesaving healthcare solutions.
This will be the most comprehensive and largest cervical and breast cancer screening and treatment programme in Africa. The programme will adopt the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommended guidelines for early detection and treatment of cancer among women.
President Tshisekedi and Minister of Health, Dr Kamba, will also launch free maternity services as part of the new universal healthcare initiative.
“The lack of healthcare opportunities for Congolese women led us to embark on this important initiative and change the paradigm,” says Dr Kamba. “We are launching a large scale national screening project, leveraging high technology to perform screening and treatment at unprecedented scale. Our aim is to eradicate cervical cancer in DRC through early detection and treatment and reduce mortality.”
“Early screening and detection saves lives and we could not be more proud to partner with MobileODT and bring these life-saving technologies to Congolese women”, says Joseph Hamou, CEO of Cingulate Medical. “We also want to thank President Tshisekedi for prioritizing women’s health. The President is a visionary who has made women’s healthcare a priority and this will not only save lives but firmly places the DRC as a leader in healthcare in Africa”.
"We are extremely proud that the MobileODT screening and treatment technologies have been selected to be part of this endeavor in the DRC," says Leon Boston, MobileODT’s CEO, "our turnkey screen and treat offering, from HPV testing to visual inspection and thermocoagulation treatment offers a complete single visit solution. With our single visit solution, we overcome the two main issues in the developing world: accessibility and loss to follow-up. We are privileged to contribute to saving lives and changing outcomes for so many women."
Mobile ODT and Cingulate Medical will also assist the Ministry of Health in developing a cancer registry. This registry is necessary in the DRC health system for better epidemiological monitoring of cancer and surveillance data and for the development of cancer control policies and their integration into primary health care.
Cingulate Medical is a global company that sources and provides solutions to some of the most challenging healthcare issues in the world today.
Cingulate Medical works extensively in the Democratic Republic of Congo providing medical and philanthropic solutions.
MobileODT is a global FemTech company providing complete turnkey screening and treatment solutions for women’s health. MobileODT products include the Delphi HPV rapid antigen test, EVA Pro digital colposcope and ThermoGlide thermocoagulation technology for pre-cancerous lesions. MobileODT products are sold in over 60 countries worldwide, including leading healthcare organizations in the US. The company is a prominent provider of women’s health technologies to government programmes around the world. MobileODT is based in Tel Aviv and led by Leon Ariel Boston.
