Prof. Francis Durosinmi-Etti, the President, Cancer Education and Advocacy Foundation of Nigeria (CEAFON) has warned the federal government to declare a state of emergency on breast cancer and cervical cancer in Nigeria.
While speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria, he condemned the inadequate equipment in the care and treatment of cancer.
He said “With cancer incidence in the country, we are expected to have about 105,000 cancer patients that will require radiotherapy treatment in one year.
“That means we need at least 260 mega voltage machines to meet up with this population.
“Incidence of breast cancer in Nigeria had increased significantly in the past decade, hence the need for proactive interventions.”
He noted that the government has to urgently partner with Non-governmental organisations to fund cancer management.
He said “There is deficient National Cancer Registry in our country, lack of political will, and the government needs to partner with private sectors, NGOs to fund cancer management.
“No priority is given to cancer care management at all levels, a large part of the populace lack cancer awareness and where there is knowledge, poverty becomes an issue.
“Access to radiotherapy is crucial and we need to make sure it is safe and effective.”
He added that “The National Health Insurance Scheme should consider cancer care in its treatment of health issues and multinational companies should rise and be involved in managing cancer patients.
“Implementation of National Health Act and private public partnership in cancer care is very paramount’’.
“We need to enlarge the existing components of cancer treatment both infrastructural and manpower, add new centres, as well as train and retrain health workers in cancer care’’.
“Nigeria is in need of a functional cancer registration to cover all states and funding of cancer treatment should be done as it was done in the case of HIV/AIDS.”