African First Ladies restate commitment to fight against cancer

By Ekemini Yemi-Ladejobi Often times, you hear critics saying that the Office of the First Lady is unconstitutional; that the lady is just the wife of the Head of State or Government and so, her role should only be supportive and complimentary. In spite of such pessimistic comments, observers note that the First Ladies, particularly those in Nigeria, have used their positions to promote the growth of the society via various pet projects and programmes designed for the less-privileged, especially women and children. The input of the First Ladies to societal growth was further demonstrated when the Forum of the African First Ladies against Breast and Cervical Cancer, initiated by a Nigerian, Princess Nikky Onyeri, met recently in Windhoek, Namibia. The Forum, which was established in 2007 with 15 African First Ladies as members, has created appreciable awareness on breast and cervical cancer and its management in Africa. The First Ladies were in Windhoek for the 8th Stop Breast, Cervical and Prostate Cancer Conference in Africa to develop strategic action plans for the prevention and management of cancer in Africa and the mobilisation of the people for the venture. A report of the World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that cancer killed 7.6 million persons in 2008 worldwide, adding that cancer-induced deaths could reach 13 million by 2030. It said that cancer also accounted for 13 per cent of all deaths globally, while 70 per cent of the cancer-related deaths occurred in middle and low-income countries. In Nigeria, not less than 10,000 cancer-induced deaths are recorded every year, while 250,000 new cancer cases are recorded annually. However, a major source of concern to health experts is the fact that only 17 per cent of African countries purportedly have sufficiently funded cancer-control programmes, while less than half of all countries in the world have functional cancer-management plans. Dr Jean Dangou, WHO Regional Advisor for cancer prevention and control, said at the Windhoek conference that since the 2008 estimate, breast cancer had increased by more than 20 per cent in Africa. He projected that by 2030, there would be 26.4 million cases of cancer worldwide, adding that there would be 16.4 million deaths and 75 million people living with cancer. ``The incidence is almost 25 per cent higher in men than in women, the rate of 205 per 100,000 people and 165 per 100,000 people respectively,’’ he said. ``There is a less regional variability for mortality than for incidence; the rate being 15 per cent higher in more developed countries than in less developed regions in men and eight per cent higher in women,’’ he added. Dangou explained that the devolution worldwide showed that in developing countries going through rapid and societal economic changes, there was a rising burden of cancers associated with reproductive and risk factors. Besides, the WHO official said that there were also huge inequalities between poor countries and rich countries. ``The incidence rates are highest in more developed regions but mortality is relatively higher in less developed countries. ``When we talk about women cancer epidemiology in Africa, cervical cancer and breast cancer are the commonest women’s cancers,’’ he said. Dangou, however, noted a slight variation in women’s cancer types with regard to the sub-regions of Africa. He stressed that breast cancer was the predominant women’s cancer in Northern and Western Africa, while cervical cancer was the foremost cancer type in Southern Africa and Eastern Africa. All the same, Nigeria’s First Lady, Mrs Patience Jonathan, one of the speakers at the confab, said that her office, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health, had been administering a National Cancer Control Programme. ``Our advocacy campaigns through my NGO, the A.Aruera Reachout Foundation, have enabled us to achieve some significant milestones in efforts to increase public awareness about cancer. ``As the Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control and Prevention in Nigeria, I have not relented in efforts to empower and educate our women on the need to have regular cancer screening. ``We have also helped to promote the strategic and legal framework for implementing the National Cervical Cancer Control Policy. ``The policy outlines the roadmap for Nigeria on how to control the challenge of cancer in the next few years,’’ she added. Jonathan stressed that the policy stated that girls between the ages of nine and 15 years ought to be immunised against cervical cancer with the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccine. She also said that the Federal Government had procured and distributed diagnostic and therapeutic equipment to 12 federal hospitals, as part of its designed efforts to tackle the menace of cervical cancer. [eap_ad_1] ``For the first time in Africa, Nigeria has also introduced residency training in Clinical Medical Physics in 2012 for cancer care enhancement. ``The training programme stemmed from our technical cooperation with International Atomic Energy Agency and we are also collaborating with the agency to procure radiotherapy and nuclear medicine equipment for 10 of our hospitals,’’ she said. Jonathan stressed that two hospitals -- the National Hospital, Abuja and University College Hospital, Ibadan -- currently offered nuclear medicine diagnosis and treatment of cancers. She said that efforts were underway to increase the number of hospitals that were capable of providing nuclear medicine services to 10 by 2016. She said that subsequently, the country’s hospitals with radiation therapy facilities would be increased to 11. The first lady, however, solicited improved access to HPV vaccine for girls between the ages of nine and 15 years, adding that the screening for cervical cancer should also be done at an early age. Besides, Jonathan advocated health education for adolescents and young adults on factors relating to cervical cancer She particularly underscored the need for women to undergo cervical cancer screening via affordable procedures of visual inspection with acetic acid and the Pap smear. She also stressed the need to urgently address the issue of expanding the women’s access to cervical cancer prevention and treatment in Africa. Moreover, Jonathan drummed support for the inclusion of cancer screening into regular family planning and maternal health services. She also wanted increased public awareness, improved access to family planning, as well as pre- and post-screening counselling to prepare women for the outcome of cancer screening. She, nonetheless, bemoaned the growing deaths of women due to the late presentation of cancer sufferers to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment. Dr Margret Chan, the WHO Director-General, in her goodwill message, said that cancer was an important area in the field of life. She noted that the input of the African first ladies in the fight against cancer had particularly increased the public awareness of cancer on the continent. Chan, however, emphasised that without the integration of cancer management procedures into family health schemes, ``we cannot attain the goal of dealing with the menace of cancer.’’ Nevertheless, Dr Ademola Olajide, the UN Fund for Population (UNFPA) Representative, who spoke on the gender perspectives and cancer in Africa, said that African women had limited capacity to negotiate condom use. He added that women also had limited financial access to female condom; hence they became more vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections. Olajide noted that there were still several societal practices in Africa which promoted multiple sex partners, wife inheritance, gender-based violence and lots of things that made women vulnerable to HIV infections. He said that the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) also made the women vulnerable to cancer of the cervix. ``Their vulnerability is not only as a result of health issues but also the social structures which we have put in place,’’ he said. Olajide said that native common sense and African intelligence assumed that one ought to have a breast before contracting cancer, prostate before having prostate cancer and cervix before contracting cervical cancer. ``How many men know that they have prostate cancer; if you look at how we have socialised our society and organised our health systems and programmes. ``We see the vulnerability of men and women to various cancers as a consequence of their socialisation,’’ he said. Olajide appealed to governments of African countries to sufficiently fund cancer-control programmes and put in place functional plans to prevent the disease, while providing treatment and care for patients. Also speaking, Mrs Penehupifo Pohamba, the Namibian First Lady, said that she was delighted to note that Africans were increasingly bracing up to the challenges posed by cancer. She said that the meeting of the first ladies would enable them to learn from each other, while adopting best practices in their plans to promote the people’s development and welfare. ``We will also ensure that the people we are assisting through our national and international strategies will be better off; having created platforms such as this to find solutions to global problems within our own African context,’’ Pohamba said. Observers, however, commend the African first ladies for their designed efforts to end the menace of breast and cervical cancer on the continent by expanding the women’s access to good disease-prevention strategies and medical care. They urge the first ladies to sustain the efforts, while looking at other specific areas which also require their intervention. (NANFeatures) [eap_ad_4]

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