06 Feb 2013

Cancer is easier to treat if detected early, a Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital consultant surgeon, Dr Celeste Mbangtang has said.

“But due to the myths, people come for help at later stages of the disease hence it becomes difficult to fight it,” he said at the World Cancer Day in Francistown on Monday,.

Dr Mbangtang said according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics, about 7.6 million people died annually from cancer, which was more than HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria combined together.

He said WHO statistics showed that without a significant improvement on change of attitude with regards to the myths and availability of resources in countries, over 17 million people were projected to succumb to cancer by 2030, which would be an 81 per cent increase from the current number of deaths.

In addition, he highlighted that cancer registered deaths were high in Botswana around 2007 but as the years progressed, the numbers significantly declined and this raised suspicions that cancer related deaths were not being recorded as people were not reporting them.

He said government, as the custodian of health in the country, should avail funds for treatment and training personnel on fighting cancer and produce active reports.

The Cancer Association Botswana chairperson, Mr Thebe Baile said developing countries were facing double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases unlike in the past when it was mostly communicable diseases such as TB.

"Non-infectious diseases such as cancer, heart diseases and diabetes as well as chronic respiratory diseases which share common risk factors of unhealthy diets, tobacco use and alcohol abuse are much of a concern in that the signs and symptoms of these disease take a long time to be noticeable," he said.

As a result, a majority of the victims did not take action immediately to prevent them or intervene early enough, he added.

Botswana National Cancer Registry under the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders collaborated in order to facilitate surveillance, prevention and control of the disease as well as to promote research to increase knowledge on the causes and diagnosis. ENDS