A Consultant Gyneacologist, Dr Peter Adefuye, has called on the Federal Government to come up with an effective cancer control policy that will cater for cancer patients in Nigeria.
He made the call at the beginning of the Cancer Awareness Campaign, organised by Ogun State Ministry of Health?in Abeokuta.
“We want a common place?that will be accessible, affordable and available to persons suffering from the disease.”
Adefuye, who was the Guest Lecturer at the occasion, said?that the disease burden and the expensive nature of its treatment necessitated the need for government at all levels to provide assistance for people diagnosed with cancer.
He said that it was also imperative to put in place facilities for the treatment of?cancer, while calling for proper implementation of cancer control strategies.
Adefuye bemoaned the absence of a specialised cancer treatment centre in Nigeria, saying that even smaller countries in sub-Saharan Africa had such centres.
“We need to take a cue from these countries. We don’t have to create extraordinary structures to establish these centres; the one in Uganda is not better than any of our primary health centres.
“We are not asking for a John Hopkins kind of structure; even if it’s just a kiosk that has a mammography machine and other equipment in place, people will access health care there.
“Getting the equipment and training the manpower are the basic requirements,’’ Adefuye said.
Dr Olaokun Soyinka, Ogun’s Commissioner for Health, appealed to?women to examine their breasts regularly via breast self-examination techniques, while going for cervical cancer once in every three years.
He said?that the cancer awareness campaign was also aimed at providing preventive medical services, as part of efforts to tackle the menace of cancer in?the state.
Soyinka said that screening services would be provided at selected primary health centres and hospitals across the state between?May 2 and May 4.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that?women leaders, women organisations, civil society organisations and market women attended the programme, where free cervical screening was conducted. (NAN)