3,000 women has breast cancer in S/East —Experts

Late stage of breast cancer

 ABOUT 3,000 cases of breast cancer have been reported in women in the South-East geopolitical zone, the health professionals of the Rotary International District 9140, have said.
Following the trend, the Rotary Club has called on the three tiers of government to urgently incorporate breast cancer Awareness programme in their primary health care scheme so as to save the lives of the women.


Briefing the media in Enugu on Monday, on the activities of the club’s Breast Cancer Awareness Initiative, the coordinator of the programme, Ogugua Nwankwu, announced that out of the 62 breast cancer clinics opened in the six South-East states, including Akwa-Ibom, in 2009, her medical team had received over 3,000 cases of breast cancer.

Expressing shock that despite the level of Nigeria’s development since independence in 1960, most Nigerian women, including young girls, were not aware of the existence of breast cancer and blamed it on a faulty national health programme which had ignored such ailments as breast cancer.

She explained that breast cancer develops when a single cell begins to multiply out of control and forms a tumor, adding that in this complex situation, some cells may break away and travel to other parts of the body to form new tumors.
 
Written by Jude Ossai, Enugu
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Tribune