Breast cancer awareness

October is important for Pakistan as this month helps rejuvenate efforts to fight breast cancer through awareness and research. Health officials have been concerned over the high incidence of breast cancer and statistics show that one out of eight women is affected by it at some stage in their lives — the highest in Asia. Due to lack of awareness, dearth of medical professionals and inadequate resources, thousands lose the fight every year.

These concerns have urged experts to voice their opinions as they called for changing lifestyle and creating greater public awareness in a recent event. The key to this, they say, is early detection, diagnosis and proper treatment. It is because of fear, shyness and restricted discourse on the matter that women are hesitant to seek help. They tend to receive treatment at later stages when the disease has progressed to a dangerous level. This is the gap that the government must ameliorate through wide-scale awareness, especially in rural areas. Women below the age of 40 need to learn how to perform breast examinations and such knowledge should also be included in school curriculums so that it is made basic knowledge to children. Curbing this will also require boots on ground and healthcare workers must go door to door to discuss the matter with families and make them aware of symptoms. Those that already have a family history of breast and ovarian cancer should be approached on a priority basis and screened.

Moreover, medical experts say that women above 40 years should undergo periodic mammography screening as a precautionary measure. It must also be noted that men can also be victims of the terrible illness even though instances were much less as compared to women.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2022.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.