Nigeria And Fight Against Cancer

Despite the widely held expectation that by now, the fight against cancer ought to have produced expected results, the killer-disease is still ravaging the world. Till date, the causes of the killer-disease are unknown.

Reports show that cancer which is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body claimed 7.6 million lives in 2008. Similar reports also anticipated that the disease might claim another 80 million lives in Nigeria before the year 2020. Statistics suggest that 12.7 million people live with cancer across the world. Cancer is believed to be the second leading cause of death in the United States of America. It kills more than half a million Americans every year.

However, experts say one-third of cancer deaths can be avoided through prevention and another through early detection and treatment.

It is in view of the preponderance of the disease that the World Health Organisation (WHO) set aside February 4 every year as the World Cancer Day. This year’s theme was titled, “Together, it is possible”.

At the first annual lecture of the African Cancer Centre (ACC), the Federal Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu noted that the problem posed by cancer to the health of Nigerians had become an issue of concern to the government. Chukwu, who spoke through the Chief Medical Director  of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Professor Akin Osibogun, said the Federal Government had completed plans to upgrade about 10 cancer centres in the country to meet the challenges posed by the scourge of the disease that had claimed lives in the past few years.

Earlier, the minister during a world press conference to mark this year’s World  Cancer Day, had disclosed that Nigeria, in collaboration with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), had paid N9 million as counterpart funding for the treatment of the disease. He said more than 5,000 young girls had received free immunisation as part of measures to prevent cervical cancer in Nigeria, adding that vaccines had been distributed to the 36 states.

He also explained that Nigeria in partnership with the International Atomic Energy Agency had procured 10 radio-therapy and nuclear medicine equipment to be distributed to 10 hospitals in the federation to improve early diagnosis and treatment of cancer. According to him, the present administration in Nigeria has developed a national cervical cancer policy which provides that girls between the ages of nine and 15 years will be immunized with Human Papilloma Vaccine.

The minister assured that in no too distant future, the Federal Ministry of Health would make these tests and screening affordable for all Nigerians, adding that now that 100,000 cases of cancer are diagnosised in Nigeria every year, the government will not rest in the battle against the disease.

In Rivers State, the event was marked with rally, which unfortunately, was characterised by low turn-out.

Participants carried placards that urged WHO and the  developed world to assist developing nations to tackle the cancer scourge. The awareness campaign rally saw mainly young men and women matched through some major streets in Port Harcourt to the Cancer Prevention, Treatment, Research and Training Institute, where they presented their request to the National Coordinator on Cancer Prevention Programme, Dr. Kin Egwuonwu.

Responding, Dr. Kin Egwuonwu told participants that already, a N10 billion Cancer Prevention, Treatment Research and Training, Institute has been established in Port Harcourt. According to him, this cancer preventive care centre will be built in five phases, each phase estimated to cost N2 billion.

Some participants who spoke to The Tide blamed the low turn-out on inadequate education of members of the public on the dangers and causes of cancer.

According to a Port Harcourt-based social commentator, Hon. Jasper Jumbo, the awareness campaign rally should be on a regular basis, starting from the local government level and state so that those who are prone to any type of cancer would be diagnosised early for treatment.

A trader at the Mile One Market in Diobu, Mazi Okonkwo Sabestine corraborated the argument of Hon. Jumbo. He was ignorant of the causes or symptoms of cancer, and that explains why he expressed surprise when some fellow traders advised him, to go for regular check-up against cancer.

However, the state Commissioner of Health, Dr. Sampson Parker while addressing a press conference to mark the event, insisted that every adult man or woman of 45 years and above should go to the nearest government-owned hospital to receive free test and screening for breast and prostrate cancer, which according to him, is common among the elderly people.

Dr. Parker said, the state free health care programme is open for both indigenes and non-indigenes resident in the state. He also stated that public awareness on breast cancer in form of “jingles” is also being sponsored by the state Ministry of Health in collaboration with non-governmental organisations (NGOs); and the electronic media.

But a Port Harcourt-based surgeon, Dr. Tony Okoye faulted the cancer preventive programme of the state Ministry of Health, saying “the free medical care programme ought to include not only screening of cancer but a comprehensive surgery of cancer victims”.

He said a situation where some cancer patients die of the disease because they could not foot the huge medical bill, is completely unacceptable. He called on the state and federal governments to battle the ravaging killer-disease and other non-communicable diseases (NCD) by providing adequate fund for medical research programmes in the country.

Dr. Okoye explained that the research programme would dismiss the claim that it is only in India people suffering from cancer could be treated. He reasoned that with adequate funding of the nation’s special hospitals and awareness campaign from the grassroots to the national level, people would be able to know the various types of cancer and how to prevent them.

According to him, breast cancer is by far the most common among women with estimated cases of 1.38 million, adding that other types of cancer like lung cancer can be avoidance of through checked cigarette smoking.

Dr. Okoye further explained that the awareness campaign should start from the primary to the tertiary institutions, because in his opinion, children need to be educated on various types of cancer.

A former consultant surgeon at Braithwaite Memorial Hospital (BMH), Port Harcourt, Dr. Diepreye George blamed the causes of the ravaging cancer disease in Nigeria on lack of adequate awareness.

In his opinion, secondary health institutions should conduct regular seminar on the symptoms, causes and prevention of cancer, noting that some symptoms of cancer can be traced to “fatigue, fever, loss of appetite, loss of weight and severe sweat at night”.

Meanwhile, another surgeon, Dr Eugene Amadi has  also blamed the inadequate awareness campaign for the ravaging cancer, urging the local, state and federal governments to provide comprehensive health care scheme for cancer prevention, screening and treatment in the country.