By: Felix Ikpotor
Management of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has vowed to lead the fight against cancer in the Niger Delta region.
Managing Director of NDDC, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku made the vow at an awareness campaign sponsored by the agency to mark this year’s World Cancer Day in Port Harcourt.
Represented by the Director, Rivers State Office of NDDC, Engr. Theophilus Alagoa, the MD said before now, the commission has been carrying out health programmes and interventions by donating mamogrammes and other facilities to health institutions in the region, but they would now go further by spearheading the provision of vaccines to prevent the disease.
“We have been donating vaccines and others to all these institutions but we won’t sit back, we are going to carryout demonstration programmes to show that we are in the forefront of this campaign, we are going to carryout medical outreaches for this purpose. For sometime now, it has been quite, but we are resuscitating that programme that NDDC has been known for.
“NDDC has been donating mamogrammes and other cancer equipments to hospitals, we are also going to intervene in the area of vaccines. We didn’t know that cancer has a vaccine but now we know. We will be the first group of people that their children from 9 years old shall have that Gardasil 9 vaccination and that is a message of hope for the Niger Delta people. We are going to give it the needed attention to save lives. Cancer must be nipped in the bud and NDDC will spearhead it,” he said.
On the awareness campaign, the NDDC boss said it’s necessary for people to know their status to prevent deaths.
“Sensitization is the beginning of awareness for prevention of cancer. Our people think cancer is a foreign sickness, many are not aware of where it comes from and reason behind it, so we have to begin to tell them that this is the problem, this is how it affects the body, if you have this kind of symptoms, it’s cancer so that you begin to check yourself to know if you have an early case which is treatable. If you don’t do enlightenment, people won’t even understand what you’re talking about as most times all they think when they are unwell is malaria but it can be cancer, before you know it, it becomes untreatable and the person dies. We don’t want these situations again so we are doing enlightenment on early detection and we are using this World Cancer Day as a springboard,” the NDDC boss stated.
On her part, Director of Education, Health and Social Services of NDDC, Dr. Ezeugo Patience, said the interventionist agency has been involved in providing vaccines for early prevention of cancer and Hepatitis B disease and has donated over 200,000 vaccines in the last two years.
She said they have been working in consonance with the health ministries and primary healthcare boards of states.
“The vaccines we donated, we always work in collaboration with the ministries of health, we pass through the Primary Health Care Boards, they pass through the primary healthcare centres, the Gardasil is for children between the age of 9 and 12, primary to secondary school children are the ones we are targeting. For the Hepatitis B, from the immunisation programme that we do for newborn, the vaccines we have donated is over 200,000 in the last two years,” she said.
In his presentation, Dr. George Ela, Consultant Gynecologist/ Obstetrician at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital said early detection is necessary for treatment of cancer, calling for regular screening by women from ages 21 and men from age 40 and above.
He also called on the government to provide access to cancer medication by building more centres, encouraging pharmaceutical companies to set up base in Nigeria and produce the drugs, training and retraining of doctors on specialized cancer cases amongst others.
He also urged Nigerians to embrace the National Health Insurance Policy to reduce the rate of out of pocket purchase of drugs, noting that cancer treatment is expensive.
Also speaking, Miss Atonye Alagoa, spokesperson of the facilitating firm, Brace-Hall International, noted that so many unholy practices are coming together to contribute to cases of cancer prevalence, hence the need for more awareness.
“This world cancer day creates a room to know about early detection and the causes of cancer, like it was explained in the lecture that there are so many things that causes cancer like the chemicals we use in ripening our fruits and in the market places, a lot of unholy practices are coming together to create cancer, so we saw the need to celebrate this day and ensure that people are more aware of it,” she stated.
