‘70% of cancer deaths in developing countries’

Cancer contributes to one in six deaths globally with 70 per cent in developing countries like Nigeria due to late detection. Also, over 18 million people are said to develop cancer annually with 9.6 million deaths from every year. The data was rolled out by the International Agency for Research on Cancer which noted that […]

Cancer contributes to one in six deaths globally with 70 per cent in developing countries like Nigeria due to late detection.

Also, over 18 million people are said to develop cancer annually with 9.6 million deaths from every year.

The data was rolled out by the International Agency for Research on Cancer which noted that one out of every three persons in the world will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.

This is as October is a global landmark month for health promotion and also marked as International Cancer Awareness Month with special emphasis on breast cancer, the most common cancer in women globally.

In a statement on the scourge, the Mass Medical Mission initiated the National Cancer Prevention Programme (NCPP), which has been spearheading community-based mass cancer screening across the country since 2007.

The Mission also quoted latest World Health Organisation (WHO) data that shows that every day in Nigeria, 32 women die of breast cancer, 28 of cervical cancer and 16 men die daily from prostate cancer and 14 persons die of liver cancer.

Similarly, data on the global blindness burden is staggering. According to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), one person in the world goes blind every five seconds and a child goes blind every minute.

Globally, more than one billion people who need eyeglasses do not have access, with ninety per cent of blind people living in developing countries.

It said, in Nigeria, there are currently over one million blind adults aged 40 years and above which also has a significant impact on the life expectancy.