August 2024
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

Dialogues

Aug 15, 2024, 02:57

Cancer Control in Mongolia v.2: HE Dr. Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu Interviews Dr. Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh

Join us for the second episode, part 2, of our interview series “United Against Cancer with HE Dr. Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu” on OncoDaily. In this episode, Dr. Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu interviews Dr. Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh, the CEO of the National Cancer Council of Mongolia.

Her Excellency Dr. Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu is a global cancer advocate, a pediatrician, a UICC Board Member, Founder of the Medicaid Cancer Foundation (MCF), and the Chairperson of First Ladies Against Cancer (FLAC). Dr Bagudu is working with the state ministries of health, education, and women affairs to implement programs to sustainably improve menstrual hygiene, girl-child education, economic empowerment of women, and put an end to gender-based violence. Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu is a member of the Editorial Board of OncoDaily.

Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh is the director of the new Medicine and Medical Device Regulatory Agency of Mongolia. She is a medical doctor and microbiologist, she began her career as a general practitioner practicing in the remote areas of Mongolia. She started the non-profit National Cancer Council of Mongolia, which focuses particularly on health advocacy and supporting patients.

Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh: United Against Cancer.

Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu: Fantastic. I think now we want to hear a little bit about your cervical cancer elimination program and your involvement in it, both as an individual, a global advocate yourself, a physician, and as the founder of the Cancer Council of Mongolia.

Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh: Yes, cervical cancer elimination is one of the biggest issues in our country. So, as we all know that about the global elimination target to reach by 2030 to improve the HPV coverage, to improve a screening program and treatment, we still have a lot of challenges and still have, and do have some progresses. In terms of HPV vaccination, we did the pilot vaccination in 2012, but the program was not really successful because of the community resistance, misinformation.

And that’s why as a civil society, National Cancer Council was advocating for HPV vaccination. And we have done a number of research projects to provide evidence that the vaccine was safe to make, to dispel this myth about the infertility issues. And as advocacy for a number of years, finally, we could make changes in the law, amendment in immunization law last year.

And the HPV vaccination is mandatory vaccine passing from this year. And the government is planning to vaccinate boys and girls at age 11. So it means we will be having gender natural vaccination.

Our country is going for single dose HPV vaccination. So we’re really hoping that there will be a lot of progress in cervical cancer elimination. But another area is related with the cervical cancer screening.

As many countries are shifting to HPV testing, we also tried to make some pilot projects to provide evidence that the HPV testing is another feasible testing beside pap smears. So this is our next project that we really want to make change and make steps forward, move things forward to make a better screening testing.

Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu: It’s very hard. I work a lot in the cervical cancer space. And finally, we got Gabby supports to start it in Nigeria.

Our numbers are very high. But so far, we have been in two rounds, we’ve had about 12 million girls vaccinated. And that’s the yes, from October last year, but there’s still about another 16 million left.

So it sounds like a lot, but we’re not up to 25%, just about 25%. So but for you, you mentioned gender neutral, which is and the issues in the misinformation and everything behind is just exactly the same issues that we have as well. And being starting from gender neutral point is a very good way to start.

That way, you can just dispel all the rumors about infertility, because it’s girls that people get suspicious about, isn’t it? And I’m so pleased that you’re going to do go down that route. Do you have Gabby support in your country, Mongolia?

Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh: Mongolia is not Gabby eligible anymore. That’s why we can’t Yeah, we can’t have a Gabby support, but we can get a Gabby prize for the which is also a good thing.

Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu: Yeah, okay. That’s good. That’s good.

At least it’s halfway there. So it’s a good thing when you’re no longer so low middle income, but then it comes at a price for other things. So congratulations, I will keep an eye on that space.

Of course, the other issue is the screening that you mentioned, and the HPV self testing and single HPV, high performance tests and there’s a lot of capacity available now from the COVID equipment, especially I’m sure that once you drive the demand, it will work very well. Does health insurance cover?

Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh: Health insurance is covering pap smears, but not HPV testing. That’s why the thing we really now need to make changes in our countries to to move to a shift to HPV testing make it covered by the health insurance.

And I think the main issue for the country is the price for PCR test kits. It’s still very expensive and not really affordable. So yeah, there will be some negotiations or global movements or initiatives to support the lowering the prices for the test kits.

We can utilize the PCR machines that were bought during COVID pandemic. Yeah, this is, I think, a good opportunity for many countries.

Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu: And you mentioned what I was going to say in my next question, but this time let’s move to childhood cancer. What are the opportunities in the childhood cancer initiative for Mongolia as a country and then also, which I know you are involved in, and also the National Cancer Council. How do you see the WHO Childhood Cancer Initiative helping to improve the outcomes for childhood cancer in Mongolia?

Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh: Yeah, so WHO’s Global Childhood Cancer Initiative was really groundbreaking initiative, and especially the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is supporting financially this initiative. So it’s very important initiative for many countries, including Mongolia. So in our country, we became the second pilot country to implement Global Childhood Cancer Initiative, and first country in the region to implement global access to childhood cancer medicines.

And recently, the government received the initial first portion of the medicines, essential list that I included in the essential list of medicines. So we really think that once we will receive all the medicines with really good quality, the treatment outcome and survival rate will be increased dramatically, and we will have the same results of the treatment like in many developed countries. So it will make big progress in terms of cancer treatment in our country for pediatric cases.

Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu: Of course, childhood cancer has very good outcomes when detected early, and you have to have the medications for a lot of them. So if you have the medications and you work on the capacity building, then it will be easier to battle. So this is really one of those situations where you say, you know, a diagnosis of cancer is not a death sentence, as long as we’re doing a lot of things and catching it early, then it would be, it’s possible to beat it.

Now you also, I also noticed the liver cancer is very high in Mongolia. Why is that? What is the reason behind this?

Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh: Yeah, Mongolia is a unique country where the number one prevalent cancer is liver cancer for both men and women. So there is no other country where the first prevalent cancer among women is a liver cancer. So the reason for the high prevalence of liver cancer is the hepatitis B and C infection.

And that’s why government has started the initiative on healthy liver program. And it has been running since 2017 for the screening of whole population with the hepatitis B and C infection and subsidized treatment for these infections. And we really hope that the rates will be dropping down over the decade.

Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu: Yeah. And once the problem has been identified and vaccination, it will get better. Are there any lifestyle factors, alcohol involved?

Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh: Yes, of course. Yeah. Another contributing factors will be alcohol consumption.

Yeah. So that’s why there should be different policies to reduce alcohol consumption, including tax increase, including the reducing the accessibility and all these public health policies should be in place.

Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu: Interesting. Well, thank you so much for your time. Are there any other parting words that you’d like to share or dreams, your aspirations?

And where do you see the Cancer Council in 10 years from now with your role?

Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh: So this year, Cancer Council will be celebrating our 10th anniversary. And we can see that over the last decade, we could make a lot of progress in terms of cervical cancer, childhood cancer, and being advocates to make these changes. And we really hope that the next decade, we will make more progress.

And we will see when there will be time when the cervical cancer will be decreased and or fully eliminated in the country. And the childhood cancer survival rate will be the same as developed countries. So these are the…

Yes, questions. Thank you.

Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu: That’s well, I think that’s and you’re well on track to doing it. My final question is, why greenhouses? What is tell me about your plan?

I was on your Facebook page and you have all these plans and greenhouses all the time. Tell us about that. Are you growing medicinal plants?

Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh: No, it’s just vegetables. So yeah, I think one way of the public health or health promotion is a healthy eating. And it’s one thing to advocate or promote healthy eating.

But it’s another thing to grow by your own. So that’s why we decided to grow our plants. And it’s, I think, very important for the kids to improve the, to change the eating behaviors, to promote more healthy eating behaviors.

You have to teach them from the childhood. So once they grow their own vegetables, they are more keen to eat vegetables. Yeah, I saw the recipe and I like it.

I appreciate it. And it’s on one hand, it’s health education, but on the other hand, it’s a childhood education as well.

Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu: Well, that’s a good one. And one that, well, of course, we have a lot of farms and we do all the farming here, but actually taking it to the children and getting them involved. Our first lady launched a gardening initiative recently.

So we really should.

Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh: Oh, really?

Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu: Yes. Yes. The first lady, she said she moved into the presidential dinner.

It was on the TV and everything is there. And she looked, what can she add? What value can she add?

So she started a vegetable garden.

Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh: That’s amazing.

Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu: Good initiative. Yes. Good initiative. So we all have to jump on it now. And now you’re also doing, that’s a challenge. Thank you so much for your time. I hope we didn’t keep you too long. We want you to finish by, I’m going to put you all alone now by saying just united against cancer.

Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh: United against cancer.

Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu: Fantastic. Thank you so much.

Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh: Thank you so much, Zainab.

Watch part 1 of Cancer Control in Mongolia: HE Dr. Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu Interviews Dr. Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh on OncoDaily