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Cameroon: Buea Regional Hospital Campaigns for Early Breast and Cervical Cancer

October 30, 2022

By Synthia Lateu & Boris Esono Nwenfor [caption id="attachment_101819" align="alignnone" width="780"] About 39, 000 people currently suffer from cancer in Cameroon according to statistics[/caption] Health experts in the country say about 39, 000 people currently suffer from cancer in Cameroon. A disease that according to the World Health Organization accounts for about a 9.6million deaths, the second leading cause of global deaths in 2018. Several women from different parts of the country have responded positively to the call from the Buea Regional Hospital for a free cancer screening. This is as the disease is gradually gaining strength in Cameroon. October every year is celebrated as pink month with several awareness campaigns carried out about breast cancer. At the Buea Regional Hospital, women are on alert about the situation. " The prevalent rate of cancer and the rate at which women are affected by this disease is alarming because we have been told one out of eight women is affected by cancer every year... The rate at which people are dying is the reason why I'm here,” Aminkeng Winifred, medical personnel at the Buea Regional Hospital said as she prepared for screening. Walter Ndaka, a human anatomist at the pathology unit of the Buea Regional Hospital explained that the hospital joined cervical cancer to her campaign, to give women the opportunity to do both free screenings at once. “The campaign that targets all women for cervical cancer screening and both Men and Women for breast cancer screening, is yet to move men into taking action. Men have not responded to the screening because there is a 'myth' that breast cancer is for women and it affects only women but we have had cases of breast cancer in men though sparsely,” Walter Ndaka said. “But most frequently we have had women. So, these activities that were announced, though the sensitization emphasized both men and women; we have not received a man yet," Walter Ndaka added. “I think it's because men think their breasts are normal until they have an infection... Before it can alert them." “We thought women how to do a self-breast exam, how they can examine their breasts themselves at home so that if there are any suspicious abnormalities, they can now alert us on the hospital... Secondly, breast cancer is genetic, hereditary... being able to identify that somebody from your family has had breast cancer is enough to keep your breast in check," Walter Ndaka further explains. He adds that alcohol and smoking amongst other factors could cause cancer. The Buea Regional Hospital is thus hoping to reach out to a greater number of communities with the need for early cancer screening, identified as the gateway to diagnosing and treating precancerous lesions before they develop into cancer  

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