18 Nov 2013

The burden of communicable and non- communicable diseases amongst men in Botswana continues to grow, the deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, Ms Shenaaz EI-Halabi has said.

Speaking at the launch of Mo-vember in Gaborone, Ms EI-Halabi said while the Botswana Cancer Registry statistics showed a high proportion of females being affected by reproductive cancers as compared to their male counterparts, male cancer was of concern and was often neglected.

Ms EI-Halabi said this necessitated the need for Botswana to put in place strategies for the involvement of men in health and making health information and services accessible to men as early as 1994 at the International Conference on Population and Development.

Furthermore, Ms EI- Halabi said their concern as the health sector was that men and boys who were victims of gender based violence were at risk of contracting diseases, but did not access equal attention and services like their female counterparts.

In an effort to increase male participation and involvement in health services, the government and the United Nations Population Fund established the male involvement project in 2004, she said.

She said during the month of November this year, the Ministry of Health through Male Involvement  and Cancer Association of Botswana joined the International Community to commemorate Mo-vember which stands for Moustache and November.

It is a month long campaign that is being commemorated across the world in which nations use this month to change the face of men’s health. Ms EI-Halabi explained that the aim of Mo-vember commemoration is to create awareness on neglected communicable and non- communicable diseases affecting men.

She said the campaign sought to promote family planning, prevention and management of sexual transmitted diseases, prevention of gender based violence and promotion of health lifestyle.

For his part, the acting director in the Department of Public Health, Dr Haruna Jibril also expressed concern about the increasing prevalence of communicable and non-communicable diseases affecting males especially cancer.

He said prostate cancer in Botswana was among the top five cancers affecting male adult. During period 2001 - 2010 over 350 cases of prostate cancer were recorded in Botswana constituting seven per cent of the total cancer reported affecting male, he added.

“The impressive health service, widely available in the country, are not designed in ways that make them easily accessible to all target groups, especially men,” he said. ENDS