FG Should Declare State of Emergency in Health Sector — ODUMAKIN
…Decries 80,000 annual deaths from cancer
President of the rights group Women Arise for Change Initiate Dr. Joe Odumakin has called on government at all levels to declare state of emergency in health sector with special focus on cancer.
Odumakin who spoke in Lagos during a five kilometers run against cancer in Nigeria tagged: “Invasion Racing 1.0” put together by The Invasion Radiography, said that cancer remains the 2nd largest killer disease globally with about 102, 000 diagnosed annually out of which 80,000 die.
She pointed out that the situation was made worse due to lack of adequate manpower and equipment, “Nigerians must stand up and support the call for awareness and treatment in unity, because our best and brightest citizens had been claimed by this deadly disease.“Government must prioritize the treatment of cancer, if they cannot make treatment free, they should at least subsidize it and make it accessible.
With adequate care and awareness we can prevent cancer, a lot of people did not know what cancer is until late stage. On his part, Project Director, The Invasion Radiography, Oke Bayode said that as a student of Radiography at College of Medicine, University of Lagos, that specialise in diagnosis and treatment, they are confronted with several cancer patient presenting very late.
“We saw patients going through pains and agony of cancer treatment so we young radiography, that just graduated from college of medicine University of Lagos, awaiting our induction, decided to come together to raise awareness about prevention, so that people can be conscious of their health.
“This is the first time we are racing against cancer, but our fourth time of awareness creation about cancer. We have held our previous awareness Maryland Mall, Tejuosho market and Surulere. We want government, organization and people to support us to take this awareness to the next level. Nobody deserves to die as a result of cancer.
Content Director, The Invasion Radiography, Ibrahim Abdul Akeem, said that nothing compares with early detection, “to carry out an ultra scan is within N2,000 to N5,000 while mammography which is for fourth years above, is within the range of 12,000 to 15,000. But when people come down with cancer, aside the truma, session of chemotherapy ranges between N100,000 to N500,000.
“At the end of this programme we hope to reach out to 6,000 people directly and about 12,000 people through media.
By: Gabriel Olawale
Vanguard News
