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From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The number of cancer cases in Africa has doubled in the past 20 years, Regional Director, World Health Organisation (WHO), Matshidiso Moeti, has said.
Moeti in a message to commemorate the World Cancer Day (WCD) said:“Over the past 20 years, new cancer cases have more than doubled in the African Region, from 338,000 cases reported in 2002 to almost 846,000 cases in 2020.”
She said the most common forms of cancer ravaging the region include breast, cervix, prostate, bowel, colon, rectum and liver.
“The risk factors include older age and family history, use of tobacco and alcohol, a diet high in sugar, salt and fat, physical inactivity, being overweight, and exposure to specific chemicals, among others,” she said.
The World Cancer Day, celebrated on February 4 every year, is an initiative of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and is marked by countries all around the world.
In Nigeria, the painful disease has continued to claim many lives due to high cost and inadequate radiotherapy treatment which has been the bane of cancer patients.
Breast and cervical cancers are on the rise in Nigeria, CancerAware, a Non-Governmental Organisation, declared in Lagos,yesterday.
Its founder, Tolu Falowo said delayed diagnoses had led to disastrous outcomes for many of the afflicted, especially the poor. “In Nigeria, about 50 per cent of women who develop breast cancer present with Stage 4 (metastatic) disease at diagnosis. Dealing with metastatic breast cancer presents many challenges for the person diagnosed, for their caregivers and for the medical team.”
Indigent and low-income individuals facing cancer diagnosis do not have good outcomes. There are several reasons for this. They include poverty, ignorance, cultural beliefs, inadequate referral systems, and inadequate diagnoses. Other reasons are fear of diagnoses, ill-trained health workers, lack of national cancer screening programmes and a dearth of well-equipped treatment centres,’’ Falowo said.
She lamented inadequate funding to help indigent patients to settle huge costs of treatment.
Meanwhile, National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) has enjoined all and sundry to cultivate and practice the habit of regular checkups and examination in hospitals to ensure early detection of some diseases in the body that can cut short human lives.
The advice was given in a statement jointly signed by the association’s Nationwl President, Mrs. Ladi Bala, and National Secretary, Helen Udofa, and made available to journalists in Ibadan.
NAWOJ called on the federal and state governments to partner national and
international stakeholders to record more laudable achievements in managing cancer cases in the country, as well as commit adequate resources to reduce cancer death and provide better quality of life for patients and survivors.
