Declare state of emergency on cancer car

By Chioma Obinna

With increasing cases of cancer among Nigerians, Cancer care advocates have called for immediate declaration of state of emergency in the health sector, particularly in cancer care. HOSPITAL VISIT: Members of Niola Cancer Care Foundation, attending to a patient at LUTH, to mark the founder, Mrs Eniola Salu’s birthday recently in Lagos. Making the call in Lagos, they also called on Nigerians to go back to organic foods as part of strategies to fight the growing burden of cancer in Nigeria. According to the World Health, WHO, over 100,000 Nigerians are diagnosed with cancer yearly, while about 80,000 die from the disease. Speaking during a visit by Niola Cancer care Foundation, to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Cancer wards recently in Lagos as part of activities to mark the Founder, Mrs. Eniola Salu’s birthday, tagged:”Birthday Cancer Victors”, they decried the large number of abandoned cancer patients by their relatives in the wards. Speaking, the celebrant, Mrs. Eniola Salu said, the government should urgently find solution to the treatment crisis as many cancer patients are dying due to high cost of treatment and cases of misdiagnosis. “Government needs to pay attention to our diagnosis. Again, agencies like National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC and Standard Organisation of Nigeria, SON, should also check the influx of processed foods into the country. The impact is evident in the rising cases of colorectal cancer in Nigeria. Unfortunately, these patients are discovered late, when there is little or nothing to be done. Salu said out of the 200 cancer patients visited in the wards, many of them were abandoned by their relatives. “Let us begin to eat what we produce. Let’s replace these foods with organic foods. In the early 80s we were not seeing such an increase but today, colorectal cancer is on the rise due to the kind of food we are eating now. An Ambassador of the Foundation, Mr. Kepy Ekpenyong, urged Nigerians to be more conscious of what they eat. “Run away from junk foods; go for early, regular medical screening and treatment.” He employed Nigerians to help give hope and fighting chances to cancer patients by contributing in any way they could.