Zimpapers Logo

OCTOBER is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but the scourge of cancer, which is among a basket of non-communicable diseases silently decimating lives, cannot be left for October alone to be highlighted.
Statistics show that an estimated one in eight women will have breast cancer in their lifetime. Regrettably too many of them may not know they have cancer until it’s too late, which is why early detection can be the difference between life and death.

Doctors say early detection is vital since tumours can be picked when they are still as small as four to eight millimetres, ensuring treatment success.

While so much attention and resources have been channelled towards the fight against HIV and Aids, a development that saw us emerge as one of the success stories in Africa with an HIV prevalence rate of 13,9 percent, not much — it seems — has been done about the silent killer, cancer.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health and Child Care indicate that 7 000 new cancer cases are reported annually and 60 percent of them, according to the Zimbabwe National Cancer Registry, are HIV related.

Of these, only some 1 300 to 2 000 are treated with radiotherapy.

Worldwide, cancer is responsible for 7,6 million deaths, two thirds of which are recorded in low-middle income countries. A study published in the International Journal of Cancer indicated that cancer patients in Harare are not likely to survive five years after diagnosis at present levels of care, which is a greater call for action.

To this end, we feel it is high time Government and other stakeholders seriously consider giving cancer as much attention as HIV and Aids are getting.
The authorities should consider changing the Aids Levy to an Aids/Cancer Levy so that some of the money collected to fight the pandemic can also be directed towards setting up requisite cancer support services and/or subsidising the cost of treatment.

The Aids Levy is calculated at 3 percent of one’s Pay As You Earn. We would have advocated a separate Cancer Levy, but Zimbabweans are already heavily taxed as it is.

More so, the case for a Aids/Cancer Levy is made even stronger by revelations by the Zimbabwe National Cancer Registry that 60 percent of the cancer cases recorded in Zimbabwe are HIV related.

This is especially so given that the requisite medicines, technologies and services are not widely available and accessible due to their high cost, resulting in a lot of premature deaths each year.

Be that as it may we also urge lifestyle intervention since about 40 percent of some cancers can be prevented by adopting healthy lifestyles such as healthy diets dominated by fruits and vegetables, avoiding tobacco use whether smoking, chewing or snuff and reducing or avoiding alcohol assumption.

Screening which includes Pap Smears; Prostate Specific Antigens and Clinical Breast Examinations as well as counselling services must be made available at health centres and should be even offered for free as is done with chronic illnesses like tuberculosis.

Food for thought.