Cancer care: Association decries dearth of professionals
The Association of Radiation and Clinical Oncologists of Nigeria (ARCON), has decried the insufficient number of oncologists in Nigeria.
The President of the association, Dr Nwamaka Laosebikan, said this on Monday in Abuja, during a media conference on the sideline of the association’s fifth Annual Conference.
The conference has “Redefining Cancer Care in Nigeria” as its theme.
According to her, Nigeria has less than 100 oncologists while the international standard should be one oncologist to 100,000 population.
“We are just less than 100 oncologists in Nigeria and according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) standards, we are supposed to have one oncologist to 100,000 population.
“So in a country like Nigeria, IAEA recommendation is that we should at the very least be 2,500 oncologists.
“So that just puts into perspective what the disparity is and how thinly stretched we are,” she added.
Olaosebikan who said that the current state of cancer in Nigeria was very alarming, added that some of the very popular cancers were present in Nigeria.
She said that cancers such as breast cancer, cervical cancer and prostate cancer were already present in Nigeria, while colorectal cancers and Hodgkin’s lymphoma were now on the rise.
“Also, we have pediatric cancers which are often overlooked and indeed it is highly curable.
“The situation is rather grim at this point in time and according to the Global Cancer Observatory, four out of every five patients with cancer in Nigeria died.
“We feel that it is wrong for survival to be dependent on the side of the globe that you live in, we want to be able to as much as we can, provide effective services to patients with cancer.”
She, however, identified late presentation in the hospital and delayed treatment due to patients, as some leading causes of the high cancer mortality in Nigeria.
She added that the high cost of treatment was also another debilitating factor that many Nigerians grappled with, especially with the low earning capacity of most people.
She also said that care givers and service providers related factors and limited availability of expertise and facilities to provide effective treatment also contribute to the high mortality from the disease.
On cervical cancer, which is caused by Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), Laosebikan said that it had become a public health interest globally, which was why the World Health Organisation (WHO) sought to eradicate it by 2030.
According to her, once a girl who is sexually active becomes exposed to HPV, it takes a minimum of between 10 to 15 years for it to transform into cervical cancer.
She added that young girls were getting more exposed to it now than in the past.
“Now in terms of the treatment, once it is caught we can offer standard of care, which includes chemo radiation therapy, and these patients can be cured.
“However, the truth of the matter is, we really do not want these patients to come in with the disease, which is why there is a lot of advocacy going on now, for screening and preventive measures using the vaccination.
“Unfortunately, we do not have the vaccines readily available in the country and this is not peculiar to Nigeria.
“We know that we are just post the COVID pandemic and during that period, most of the vaccine producing companies actually transitioned to face COVID.”
Laosebikan encouraged young women and girls to visit health care facilities and take all available screening tests, adding that a stitch in time saves nine.
The Secretary-General, Dr Oladele Kehinde, said that there was a dearth of radiotherapy equipment as the global standard was supposed to be at least one machine to a million people.
He also said that the payment for the treatment of cancer was huge and should be considered for health insurance.
“Presently, in Nigeria, we still have less than 20 that are functional and as a matter of functionality we have probably about 10, or thereabout.
“The implication of that is that most of our people who are citizens have to travel between 50 to 100 kilometres or a little more before they can access it.
“There is also the challenge of payment out of pocket, the regular comprehensive treatment of cancer, maybe about between N500,000 to maybe N1.5 million for one person’s comprehensive treatment.”
“So we believe that with our engagements, media engagement and also the stakeholders and policymakers, if they can actually invest more in health care, private firms and also the health insurance.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conference, which began on Monday and would end on Wednesday, would discuss innovative solutions to ameliorate the issues of cancer in Nigeria.
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