Cancer: RSG Embarks On Early Detection Campaign

As part of measures to curb
the onslaught of cancer in the state, the Rivers State Ministry of Health says it has commenced early detection of cancer screening.
Commissioner for Health, Dr. Sampson Parker who gave the indication in a chat with newsmen as part of the World Cancer Day celebrations recently, said the menace of non-communicable diseases has been put under control with the detection centres and the opening of a cancer registry desk to raise awareness on the menace of cancer.
He said cancer as one of the non-communicable diseases maybe on the rise but that government was doing everything to bring it down just as it is fighting HIV/AIDS in the state.
Dr. Parker assured that the State government was poised to bring non-communicable diseases under check and advised them to make use of public health facilities”.
Meanwhile, Director of Public Health in the State Ministry of Health, Dr Nnanna Onyekwere  has warned people to desist from using dangerous chemicals as fertiliser and pest control stating that such chemicals could lead to cancer inhaled or absorbed into the body.
Onyekwere who raised alarm over the rising cases of prostate cancer in men and cervical cancer in women said, “if people warned of the dangers of smoking cigarettes can obey, they are less likely to develop cancer. If people obey that they should not use every chemical they see as fertliser, then some cancer case could have been avoided. If people obey and are well educated of the dangers then they are less likely to have cancer”.
He urged the people to be on regular medical check-up, emphasising that early detection of cancer helps to check death and spread, especially the cancer of the breast which kills once it spreads to other parts of the body.
The senior health official also called on women to go for smear tests, stating that early detection and immunisation help to check cervical cancer.