Posted by Mansur Oladunjoye - Lagos, allAfrica.com on
LAGOS State government will today launch a breast cancer awareness and free screening for women in the state....
LAGOS State government will today launch a breast cancer awareness and free screening for women in the state.
The programme to be conducted by both the Ministries of Health and Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) would establish a comprehensive policy to reduce the prevalence and burden of breast cancer disease.
At press conference jointly addressed by Commissioners for Health, Dr Kola Kasali and his WAPA counterpart Mrs Joke Adefulire, the commissioners explained that breast cancer has killed a lot of women in Nigeria, the reason for which the state government decided to offer assistance through free screening and surgical operations where necessary.
Dr Kasali said breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in Nigerian women, adding that the lifetime risk for all women for developing the menace is 10 per cent, while the annual number of new cases is about 34 per 100,000 women.
He said, "the scourge affects at least 116 out of 100,000 women, per year, though it occurs at various stages, however, in 15 per cent of the cases, the women are under the age of 30 years.
"Statistics from our various hospitals from 1999-2004 also confirms breast cancer as the commonest type of cancer seen in women (constitute about 26.6 per cent of all the cancers seen within the period)", Dr. Kasali noted.
The Commissioner, disclosed that the state government had screened 900 women in the state, while there have been over 150 surgery on women with breast cancer. According to him, "in the last couple of years, we have witnessed an increase in the number of cases of cancer, especially that of the breast, in our hospital units, we have continuously attended to these cases by way of diagnosis and surgery and even sponsored a large number of them for further management abroad..."
"It has become imperative that concrete steps be taken to reduce the casualties of this deadly disease which claims lives of our precious women; there is need to educate the public on early detection of it, as the only way to stop it from advancing", Kasali justified.
He however, revealed that massive enlightenment campaigns especially at the grassroot level is to be embarked upon by the state government.