Medica-Liberia, Partners Host Global Breast Cancer Awareness

The Country Director of Medica-Liberia, Caroline Bowah has alarmed over the dangerous effect of breast and other forms of cancers affecting the country, most especially, women.
Speaking at a one day Global Cancer Awareness held at the Paynesville City Hall, Madam Bowah said, the issue of cancer effect should be addressed holistically, adding that her entity, Medica- Liberia along its partners have embarked on the awareness campaign to sensitize the populace to take tangible measures aimed at curtailing the global epidemic.
Madam Bowah further thanked the Liberian Government for its commitment in contributing to curtailing the spread of the disease; she wants Liberians tested with those treatments available, something which will curtail the massive influx of people going to health centers if they are diagnosed.
For her part, Dr. Sia Wata Camanor

from the John F. Kennedy Medica Center-JFK, encouraged the participants, dominantly women, to prevent birth cancer. According to her, prevention of birth cancer can only be made when they (women) agree to respond to treatment.
Although, she expressed concern over the manner in which the disease had affected women globally, she is at the same time commending the Liberian women for efforts made over the years to fight birth control.
Madam Camanor said, the effect of the disease is not a respecter of a person, his money, or his religious affiliation, the age of a person and the race, but is very dangerous to humans. She further warned Liberians to eat natural food, most especially, something raw and fresh like cucumber.
“People in the past did not catch some of those communicable diseases because they ate natural food,” she stated.
Moreover, the Head of Program at Medical-Liberia, Emily D. Frank, is calling on women and girls in the country to respond to those care centers to be tested for cancer. Speaking shortly after the awareness program, Madam Frank said, Medical-Liberia had also been in support of SGBV programs in the country.
She said, the program had looked and considered psychosocial counseling for victims, Legal Aid programs and reproductive health programs in terms of education for the victims, as well as capacity building for community women and those hired to work on these programs.
She added that with works in the South-east, and Montserrado County, Medical-Liberia had over the years worked with several communities in these counties providing assistance to victims, and Women groupings.
In the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Division of None Communicable Disease section about 8.2m people die from cancer locally every year. The report also says, 14.2m cases of the population will be affected by cancer in 2030 if nothing is done to curtail this deadly disease.
Meanwhile, the global cancer rate will rise above 21.7m as stated by the report, while, 70% of the cancer death occurs in the region. It also says, more than 90% of cancer patients do not go to the hospital for check-up, blaming it to witchcraft activities.
The Ministry of Health’s survey also says, 366 new cases of surgical cancer occur every year, while, there are 269 deaths every year. From 2014 to 2019, data collected from few hospitals show 1,121 cases of cancer in Liberia.
Currently, JFK and Tappita Hospitals as being the only hospitals with cancer testing centers, but ELWA and S.D. A. Cooper Hospitals send their specimens abroad for testing.