More than one out of every six deaths in Africa and other parts of the world is due to cancer, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
The world marks cancer day on 04 February by raising awareness and education about the ailment, and pressing governments and individuals across the world to take action against the disease.
In the past two decades, the overall number of people diagnosed with cancer nearly doubled, from an estimated ten million in 2000 to 19.3 million in 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said ahead of the World Cancer Day 2021.
‘Today, one in five people worldwide will develop cancer during their lifetime. Projections suggest that the number of people being diagnosed with cancer will increase still further in the coming years, and will be nearly 50 percent higher in 2040 than in 2020’, WHO.
The global health body also noted that the number of deaths from cancer had increased from 6.2 million in 2000 to ten million in 2020.
Based on Globocan 2012 report, there were an estimated 626,400 new cases of cancer and 447,700 deaths from the disease in sub-Saharan Africa.
Also, as regards population aging alone, cancer incidence in sub-Saharan Africa was projected to increase by 85 percent in the next 15 years.
In Nigeria, available data from WHO and Globocan shows that the country annually records over 100,000 cases of cancer, with an estimate of over 70,000 deaths yearly.
Cancer in Africa is characterised by late presentation, low access to treatment, and poor treatment outcomes.
Also, media reports in 2018 noted that cancer treatment in Nigeria cost between N2,100,000 and N30 million per patient.
With 40 percent of Nigerians living below the poverty line of N137,430 ($381.75) per year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) 2019 Poverty and Inequality in Nigeria report, cancer treatment becomes almost impossible for over 83 million Nigerians.
In this regard, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Lift Above Poverty Organisation (LAPO), called on governments in Nigeria to provide cancer treatment support for citizens who cannot afford the cost of managing and treating the ailment.
Executive Director of LAPO, Honestus Obadiora, made the call as the organisation carried out an awareness rally in Igando, Lagos State, to observe the World Cancer Day 2021.
Obadiora, who was represented by the organisation’s Head of Western Region, Sandra Asowata, said the rally aimed to create awareness on cervical, breast, and prostate cancer.
‘As a development organisation, LAPO is concerned that cancer is now a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Nigeria with over 100,000 persons diagnosed every year from which about 80 percent die due to late detection’, Asowata said.
He said between November 2016 and December 2020, LAPO created mass awareness about cancer in target communities across the country under the LAPO-C4 project.
The organisation, it was gathered, is implementing the project in collaboration with six community-based bodies in Lagos, Edo, Imo, Abuja and Rivers State.
‘The main focus of the project is mass awareness creation, basic screening services for the detection of pre-malignant conditions and building referral linkages for the uptake of medical services’, he said.
‘We are also advocating a government policy on cancer treatment support for indigent individuals considering the enormous financial burden of managing the ailment in Nigeria’.
The organisation also called for support from individuals and corporate organisations to help broaden the reach of its initiative.
Two other Nigerian NGOs are working towards reducing the burden of cancer in Africa’s most populous nation.
In 2020, Development Diaries reported that Quinta Health said it was ready to offer free breast cancer screening for 2,000 market women in Ilorin, Kwara State, central Nigeria.
Founder of the NGO, Dr Tunde Adewumi, said the screening will be carried out in ten major markets in the state capital.
Similarly, Amen Healthcare and Empowerment Foundation (AHF), in partnership with the government of Gombe State, northeast Nigeria, launched a free breast and cervical cancer management programme.
AHF President Rita Oguntoyinbo said four screening centres had been set up in Kumo, Kaltungo, Bajoga and Gombe to provide educational information, screening and treatment of pre-cancerous cells.
The federal government of Nigeria is not silent on cancer.
The country’s Ministry of Health, in 2019, launched the chemotherapy access treatment programme (CAP) that enables cancer patients to save up to 50 percent of the treatment cost.
Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said 12 hospitals had been approved for cancer treatment.
Also, he said the government had already developed an indigent patients’ selection criteria to ensure that only those who needed the fund benefit from it.
‘This is meant to complement other patients assisted programmes like the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the CAP programme’, Ehanire said as the country joined other nations to mark the World Cancer Day 2021.
‘We are currently working out modalities to ensure that almost all cancer care services are covered by NHIS’.
The minister asked stakeholders in the cancer ecosystem to join hands with the ministry to take the war against cancer to the next level.
Photo source: LAPO
