The Director General of the National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (NICRAT), Usman Aliyu, has listed some of the challenges encountered in the fight against cancer in Nigeria.
Mr Aliyu listed poor funding, campaign against vaccination in some quarters, and non-availability of oncology nurses as some of the challenges faced by the country in cancer management.
He spoke at a one-day retreat organised for select journalists in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) by NICRAT in collaboration with the International Society of Media in Public Health (ISMPH).
The training, according to the organisers, was aimed at exposing journalists to issues around cancer management, noting the important roles journalists can play in the campaign against cancer cases in the country and beyond.
Challenges
Speaking on the funding challenge, Mr Aliyu said the provision for cancer-related issues in the 2024 budget cannot be sufficient to carry out meaningful campaigns against the dangerous diseases.
He, however, said the government has assured that subsequently, there would be an increase in the allocation for cancer management as a way of addressing the crisis posed by the dangerous disease.
Also speaking at the forum, the Director of the Cancer Prevention and Control unit of the agency, Usman Waziri, noted that in the developed world, both boys and girls are vaccinated against cancer because it is believed subsequently in life, the boys will become sexually active and can get infected with Human Papillomavirus and can later develop perinatal cancer.
“However, because the low- and middle-income countries like Nigeria cannot cover the cost of vaccinating both men and women, we have opted for the girls alone,” he said, even as he emphasised the necessity for the vaccination of the girls.
On her part, Ayodelle Obaro, a nurse with Stephen James Healthcare Limited in the UK, noted that the role of oncology nurses cannot be downplayed.
“For instance, there are three major areas of cancer management- chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery. And because knowledge is power, oncology nurses are important in this area but how many of them are available?” she asked rhetorically.
Speaking on the importance of specialisation in nursing for the proper management of cancer cases, Ms Obaro said different cancer cases require different management methods and that their understanding by the experts managing them will determine the success or otherwise in the management processes.
She listed empathy and communication, patient education, and adherence to protocols and guidelines as some of the features an oncologist nurse must possess.
Cancer in Nigeria
Speaking on cancer cases in Nigeria, Mr Aliyu cited the recent report by the Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN), which he said quoted 120,000 new cancer cases with about 80,000 deaths in Nigeria in 2022 as the latest statistics.
He said the prevalent cancer cases for both sexes in the country are breast cancer (24.3 per cent), prostate (14.1 per cent), cervical (10.7 per cent), colorectal (6.4 per cent), and Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (NHL) (4.1 per cent).
Mr Aliyu said many died of cancer in Nigeria but were unaware of the disease that caused their death, blaming the development on poor education and lack of adequate documentation.
“Cancer Health Fund (CHF) and Cancer Access Programme (CAP) are some of the programmes introduced by the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with NGOs targeted at improving cancer care in the country,” he said.
Mr Aliyu also noted that the government plans to separate funds for children with cancer from funds meant for adult cancer patients.
He, therefore, called on journalists to educate the people from the grassroots on the importance of the vaccine against cervical cancer.
Role of Media
An official of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Eunice Damisa, said it is the role of the media to inform the public appropriately “because they deserve the right information for decision-making.”
She urged the media to influence positive opinions about the disease “so that we can shape the behaviour towards appreciating the need to take the HPV vaccine, and the need to look out for the symptoms and know that they are and to be reported at an early stage.
“Create opportunities for dialogue not just for the experts but for those who have experienced it. Bring real-life stories, the survivors, what are their stories? We need to reach out to them so that others can listen to them and learn from them and appreciate the fact that being diagnosed with cancer is not a death sentence,” she noted.
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