Cervical cancer-Nigeria - Much more than the dreaded Acquired Immune Deficiency syndrome(AIDs) virus, is yet a deadlier killer-disease, especially among the women folk. With at least a woman dying every hour from the disease, cervical cancer is indeed a ravaging scourge that deserves to be tamed with all the efforts we can muster. Dr Kin Egwuonwu, a cleric, who has spent quality time handling, treating and counseling on cervical cancer cases, recently raised the alarm on the havoc the disease is wreaking on Nigerian women.

As today is earmarked as World Cancer Day, no doubt, the statistics reeled out by Egwuonwu was scary. According to him, beside the cervical cancer victims, another 10,000 women die from breast cancer every year in Nigeria. Not even the men are spared of the cancer crush as the nation loses 14 men everyday to prostate cancer. The information is disturbing.

We believe that no nation, worth its salt, can afford to be indifferent to the rate of destruction the cancer scourge is wreaking on Nigerians. At the rate of a woman per hour, for instance, it means that 24 women die per day, and so, 168 women die per week, 524 per month and 62,880 per annum. And when you add the even higher number of deaths arising from prostate cancer, among the menfolk, then this surely, makes cancer one of the foremost killers in Nigeria. Cervica cancer is contacted mainly from sexual intercourse, but only the woman gets afflicted.

It is gratifying that Dr Egwuonwu noted that the disease is both preventable and curable. That is why we are disturbed that medical experts across the country have seemingly surrendered to the cancer scourge. At least, this is the impression created by the general belief that it is a terminal disease. Little wonder that anybody diagnosed of cancer is often taken as merely marking time before finally dying.

We believe the Federal Ministry of Health, along with other health institutions, and even pharmaceutical companies can commission a research scheme that can tackle the cancer menace. The annihilative grind of the disease surely deserves extra-ordinary measures like declaring a state of emergency on it. Indeed, the menace deserves extra-ordinary attention from all stake holders in the health sector. Screening centres should be established across the country, especially in the rural areas, just as all women above 40 should be made to undertake cervical tests.

Beside, the ministries of health at federal and state levels need to mount vigorous mass education and mobilisation campaign on the causes of the disease and how best it can be prevented. There is, at the moment, little information on the cause(s) of the disease and even what to do when it is diagnosed. No doubt, the poor information on the disease has mystified its potence and consecutively, its ability to claim much more victims. With more information, we believe, Nigerians will be wiser and a little more cautious on how to avoid habits that can cause or promote the affliction.

That is why we think the concerned authorities must be challenged by the presentations of Dr Egwuonwu. Happily, some religious organisations, NGOs and voluntary organisations have begun awareness campaigns to get more and more Nigerians informed about the killer-disease.

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) should also see the spread of the scourge as a call to duty. The association can use its platform to source external help on how best the disease can be contained. We believe that cancer is a threat to the entire human race, especially Nigerians who appear rather vulnerable to the affliction. Given the huge number of casualty, the government can devote either an equal or more attention to the cancer menace than it does the HIV pandemic. HIV/AIDs has enjoyed more publicity than cancer, even when the Egwuonwu statistics have shown the former as deadlier.

All said, we believe that cancer has done incalculable harm to Nigerians, what with the huge number of persons-prominent and ordinary- that the disease has prematurely sent to the great beyond. It is not beyond man's ability to tame the malaise. Let all hands be on deck to save humanity from the cancer scourge, or at least reduce the harm it is doing to Nigerians.

This Day