By Sam Oditah
Umuahia – The Wife of Abia Governor, Mrs Nkechi Ikpeazu, has advised the state government to reposition Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) to enable them offer cancer screening services.
Ikpeazu gave the advice on Wednesday at the opening of a five-day workshop on “Cancer Control in Primary care Course”, in Umuahia.
She further urged the government to initiate steps to make breast and cervical cancer screening one of the primary healthcare services in every ward in Abia.
Ikpeazu, represented by the Commissioner for Health, Dr John Ahukanna, said that government would require building a critical mass of healthcare providers both the public and private sectors to achieve the objective.
“I am happy that the state government has gone beyond awareness creation by empowering the Abia State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (ASPHCDA) to commence concerted cancer prevention and control programme,” she said.
She regretted that cancer cases remained undocumented and promised that efforts would be made to create a database of cancer cases in the state.
In his speech, the Executive Secretary, ASPHCDA, Dr Chukwuemaka Oluoha, said that the workshop marked the commencement of government-organised programme for cancer prevention, management and treatment.
“Breast, cervical and prostate cancers are the most prevalent cases in Abia and Nigeria, with women mostly affected.
“The essence of the training is to provide adequate, skilled and competent healthcare providers to offer scientifically-proven screening services for early detection of the disease.
“The participants, numbering about 100, including nurses, midwives and doctors, will be trained on skills to provide breast and cervical screening for detection and treatment of early cervical cancer with cryotherapy.
“They will also provide counselling services to suspected cases of prostate cancer,” he said.
The workshop was organised by ASPHCDA in conjunction with American Society for Clinical Oncology.
A representative of the society at the event and Abia-born medical practitioner but based in Canadian, Dr Kelechi Eguzo, described the workshop as timely.
He said the exercise would offer him and his group the opportunity to make contribution toward the early detection and treatment of cancer in Nigeria.
Eguzo said he joined the global efforts to tackle the disease due to the large number of patients coming to his hospital in Canada with cancer cases.
In a goodwill message, the representative of the state branch of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr Gabriel Nnanna, said increasing cases of cancer in Nigeria could be attributed to the western lifestyle.
“Regrettably, while we copy the lifestyle of the whiteman, we do not emulate them in the way and seriousness they attend to their health,” Nnanna said.
Some participants at the training, including the state Chairman of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, Mrs Ugochi Akoma, said that their knowledge about cancer had been enriched by the workshop.