Cancer cases and deaths are going up in the country, creating apprehension among Nigerians, many of whom express worry that not much is being done to stem the tide. WINIFRED OGBEBO reports.
While the rest of the world is breaking new grounds in innovations and research in the treatment of cancers, Nigeria is battling with the challenge of grossly inadequate equipment for the screening and treatment of the ever increasing cases of the disease.
The situation is such that cancer patients from all over the country recently protested the lack of equipment in hospitals across the country, and the malfunctioning of the only one available at the National Hospital, Abuja.
It is quite disheartening looking at and listening to the victims of this debilitating disease. At the entrance of the admin block of the National Hospital, the sight of deeply pained and near hopeless cancer patients waiting to be attended to is touchy.
As ravaging as the various forms of the disease is, its treatment is elitist.
A prostate cancer patient, Tom Ugah (57) from Cross River State said he had been at the hospital for six weeks. He was supposed to have 30 shots of treatment but had had 15 so far because of the frequent breakdown of the only machine for it at the hospital.
Visibly troubled, Ugah said the break in his treatment had a negative impact on him, adding, “I am a sick man, and am dying too.” It is the same story for a woman diagnosed with breast cancer, Mrs Dorcas Denene, who came from Benue State to access care at the hospital.
Speaking on her behalf, her daughter, Mrs Grace Zebete said she started the treatment on August 4 and was slated to take about 22 shots, but had so far had 17 and had been unable to continue. She said the development had left her mother in excruciating pain and pleaded with the authorities at the hospital to help her.
“This is a national hospital so we need more machines in this hospital than other hospitals. If the machines were more, it would have been better for us. We come early in the morning and we stay long hours before we get attended to. At times, we stay up to 7 or 8 pm before it gets to our turn. This is not good,” she stated, adding the management of the hospital had constantly blamed the situation on power failure and breakdown of the UPS without any visible move being made to remedy it.
Another breast cancer patient, Mrs Ezinna Osike from Abia State said she was referred from UBTH to UCH and from there to National Hospital, Abuja because of the breakdown of the cancer machines in those places.
“My anger is not with the National Hospital management, but rather with the Federal Government. Nigeria has 36 states and you know the population and so many people are passing through the same trauma. So there’s no way one radiotherapy machine will be serving the whole federation. That is why people are dying. It’s not that cancer kills instantly but it’s because there are not enough machines for the treatment,” she said.
With Nigeria’s population of about 170 million, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends at least, 146 cancer treatment and management centres, with well-trained personnel on cancer management.
A nurse oncologist at the National Hospital, Abuja, Jane Agabi, said cancer cases are increasing on a daily basis in the country.
“If you go to our clinics, we have new cases daily. On our clinic days, we have up to 90 cases and other patients too that were referred from other hospitals because their machines have broken down,” she pointed out.
According to Agabi, cancer is about to surpass HIV/AIDS pandemic in Nigeria as 26 females die of cervical cancer and 40 women die of cancer of the breast, including deaths from prostate cancer, on a daily basis.
A consultant urologist in Apollo Hospital, New Delhi, India, Dr Narasimhan Subramanian, explained that cancer can be better managed with early diagnoses and technology, adding that all cancers are getting more common today due to longevity.
“Thirty, 40 years ago, many people died before they were 60. Today, they live into their 70s and 80s. And because people are living longer, there is higher potential for them to develop cancers. Secondly, we are able to detect more cancers now. You see a swelling today, you go to your doctor.
“Forty years ago, your grandmother would only go to a doctor if she was so sick she was dying. I think the important reason that all cancers are on the rise is because we are living longer and we have the equipment to detect these.
“Overall, among women, cancer of the breast, cervix, and uterus are common. Among men, cancer of the lung is common, particularly in communities where smoking is common. Cancer of the prostate is common. Cancer of the thyroid, kidneys, all do occur but less commonly than others,” he said.
Subramanian pointed out that the chances of surviving cancer are better today than 10 years ago, saying, “the benefit of technology is, you are able to do things with less side effects, suffering or pain. When we did prostate operations before robotics came, the surgery would last four to five hours, nearly 40 to 50 percent of patients would need blood transfusion, and they would be in hospital for about 10 days.
“Today, majority of patients would go home on day two or three. The same operation in some hospitals in the United States, the patients go home on the same day or night. Because it is less invasive, the pain and discomfort is less; they get back to work early. Even the financial cost on the family is less.”
However, for a country of about 170 million people, there are just seven radiotherapy machines in the whole country and only the one at the National Hospital, Abuja is in working condition.
The nurse, Agabi said the ‘last one standing’ is overstretched and obsolete, hence prone to constant breakdowns. She also raised the alarm over the dearth of trained personnel to manage cancer cases in the country.
She said, “National Hospital is the only hospital in Nigeria that has oncology nursing school and the class that is graduating in November this year are only 11 and that is inadequate for our increasing population.”
Just like Nigeria gallantly fought the Ebola Virus Disease and HIV, a biomedic scientist, Dr John Tor-Agbidye, suggested that the Federal Government should declare a state of emergency on cancer in the country.
He said since no donor is helping out in this regard, the government was in a position to critically mobilize human and financial resources towards the fight of cancer. Cancer care, according to him, involves a long term multi-sectoral approach and so should not be left to government alone to handle, everyone should be involved.
On reducing the risk factors, Tor-Agbidye said as a people, Nigerians needed to modify their lifestyle by checking what they eat, drink, smoke etc as all these are risk factors to cancer.
He said, “If, we, for instance, expose ourselves to fatty foods and foods that are processed for instance, we are not helping ourselves. We should eat right, exercise and maintain a normal body weight to our height so that our body will be encouraged to fight cancer and epidemics.
“Cancer is very expensive to maintain. My worry is that government has subsidized other sicknesses but they are yet to subsidize cancer care. As I speak, I doubt if it’s captured in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). Many people die because they are unable to access treatment.”
The biomedic scientist maintained that “the orthodox way of treating and managing cancer has not given us the best since President Nixon launched the war against cancer more than 44 years ago.
“We look at typically, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery and these, unfortunately, have side effects, especially killing the immune system and once your immune system is intact, you can survive it and vice versa.”
He talked about new bio-therapeutic products being developed and which compliment old orthodox way of managing cancer being used in Cuba.
The expert called on care-givers to be broad minded and think outside the box by developing other ways of managing and treating cancer.
By: Winifred Ogbebo
Leadership News
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