Nigerian Women Are Highest Victims Of Cancer – FG

The Federal Ministry of Health has said that a lot of women in the nation are suffering from breast and cervical cancer.

This was disclosed in a statement issued by the ministry’s Head of Media and Public Relations, Enefaa Bob-Manuel.

THE WHISTLER reports that the disclosure is coming on the sidelines of the commemoration of the 2019 Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening and Awareness Month, which took place in Abuja recently.

Breast and cervical cancer are diseases that negatively affects the breast and the lower part of the uterus.

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, who affirmed that a great percentage of cancer-related issues occur in the nation also added that breast and cervical cancer account for over 50% while cervical cancer is responsible for the incidence of about 27.2/100,000.

His words: “Breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer in the world with an estimated 1.67 million new cases diagnosed in 2012 (25% of all cancers) while cervical cancer is the fourth with an estimated 528,000 new cases in 2012.

“An estimate of about 15 thousand (14,943) cases diagnosed annually with late presentation at health facility causing death of about 8000 women annually is reported in Nigeria (Globocan 2018).

According to him, the spread of cancer, among other things, is caused by lack of awareness, late presentation, poor health seeking behavior, financial constraints, inadequate experts to manage the disease and insufficient and inadequately equipped cancer managing centers.

He said that government is passionate about reducing that figure through the Nigeria National Cancer Control Plan, 2018-2022 and the National Strategic Plan for Prevention and Control of Cervical cancer management.

On her part, the Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, said that the social well being of women, girls and children is government’s core concern.

She also emphasized  that her team, through advocacy and social mobilization will educate the women on how to timely discern the early warning signs of cancer, thereby reducing the possibility of untimely death.

 “We have been partnering with relevant MDAs, NGOs as well as Development partners in the development of programmes and projects aimed at enhancing the health status of women. Our National Gender Policy is also targeted at improving the health status of women,” she said.