He called on public health system in the district assemblies to make the cancer treatment awareness broad.

 

Dr Essien said this in Accra at the second annual international capacity building conference of “Food Security Dietary Practice and Non-communicable Diseases”, on Thursday.

 

The conference organised by Let us Go Africa Foundation was on the theme: “Cancer, a Growing Health Burden in Ghana.”

 

He mentioned that some eating habits, unhygienic conditions of growing foods as well as meat process in the various abattoirs (casogenic tendencies) were some of the leading causes of cancer and it is estimated to be a five per cent cause of death.

 

He, therefore, advised that people should ensure that at least 20 per cent of their food intake must be fruits and vegetables and be a periodic regular meal.

 

Dr Essien called for partnership among stakeholders and churches to ensure that the right education was given to the citizenry especially when the churches become the first point of call when people are diagnosed with a disease.

 

Dr Dennis Laryea, Programme Manager Non-Communicable Diseases, Ghana Health Service, said the availability of cancer registry centres in every area of the country was critical to generate the needed data that would support cancer research and also address the national burden of cancer.

 

He said this would also help to assess whether the intervention systems were working as well as aid doctors and nurses to evaluate treatment regimen and their effectiveness on their patients, help government make cancer policies, allocate and prioritise resources.

 

“The Cancer registry is the brain and central nervous system of cancer control programme everywhere…Therefore, we need politicians to make laws that will make cancers a reportable disease and also accord them the needed attention,” he said.

 

According to Dr Laryea, cancer registration was an important component of Ghana’s No-Communicable Disease strategy.

 

He therefore called for a paradigm shift of disease control and prevention from communicable alone to include non-communicable diseases and the use of street names to allow for easy follow up.

 

Mr Kwesi Bosompem, the President Let us Go Africa Foundation, said the conference was aimed at breaking the message down for the citizenry to understand cancer and its related issues extensively with the help of government by making this information available through public education.

 

He also called on the Ministry of Health to focus on the prevention of the disease as well as ensure that the treatment of the disease was covered under the National Health Insurance Scheme. 

 

Dr Joel Yarney, Consultant Oncologist and Director, National Centre for Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, also called for a comprehensive restriction on alcoholic advertisement because the high intake of such could cause cancer.

 

He said in 2012 an estimated 3.3 million of all deaths worldwide were attributed to alcohol consumption and more than half of these deaths resulted from non-communicable diseases.

 

Dr Yarney however, urged professionals to play their key role by reducing the harmful use of alcohol, identifying hazardous drinking in their patients by providing brief interventions and treatment as appropriate. 

 

The conference was in partnership with the Ghana Medical Association, Ghana Nurses Association, Ghana Dietetic Association, Ghana Institute of Horticulture, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Biomedical and Allied Health Sciences, University of Ghana, the Ghana Nutrition Association and African Nutrition Society.

 

GNA