Sunday, February 05, 2012

World Cancer Day: No hospital in interior Sindh, Balochistan to treat disease

By Haris Hanif

KARACHI: Various health institutions and hospitals held awareness seminars and activities for children suffering from cancer to mark the International Cancer Day, here on Saturday.

The mega events were organised by Omair Sana Foundation (OSF), Children Cancer Hospital (CCH) and Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT). Addressing the seminar, the health experts said the success of cancer treatment was 80 percent and the ratio of the lethal disease could be contained with raising awareness and timely diagnosis. General Secretary OSF Dr Saqib Hussain Ansari said cancer is not a contagious disease, so people should not be afraid.

He said the chances of recovery of cancer patients are bright if diagnosed in early stage. He maintained that there was no health institution for the treatment of cancer patients in interior Sindh and Balochistan. He stressed the need to establish hospitals in those areas to facilitate local people.

Meanwhile, children suffering from various types of cancers had some rare moments of enjoyment and fun, while their parents and common people learnt a lot about childhood cancer at a public awareness programme-cum-family fun gala at CCH. Dr Zehra Fadoo, Paediatric Oncologist, associated with Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), told the participants that cancers were second leading cause of deaths among children after traumas and they were more common in our parts of the world, including Asia and Africa where children are more in numbers as compared to the modern world. “But fortunately, 80 percent of cancers in children are completely curable. The only condition is early detection and treatment at any specialised facility for treatment of childhood cancers” she informed but deplored that such facilities were quite few in Pakistan. Dr Fadoo said parents should take their children to any specialised cancer treatment facility if their child had persistent, unexplained fever for a longer period, pain for a long duration without any explainable cause, constant weight loss and lumps anywhere in the body.

“It is very important that parents should know about signs of childhood cancer so that they could not only keep their children healthy but could also assist and guide others” she said.

“Deplorably, children in our country are adopting the habit of eating sweet betel nuts (Chalia), which is giving rise to oral cancer among those children, she informed and added that oral cancers were very hard to treat.

Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

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