“Pink October” in Chad was dedicated by the national authorities to the fight against cancer. As a prelude to this important national initiative, the WHO Representative in Chad addressed the Media.
Speaking of cancer, the scourge that in 2020 has claimed 10 million lives, 70% of which are in low- and middle-income countries, of which Chad is a part, he insisted on prevention by acting on the factors that often make the bed of cancer, namely overweight and obesity, sedentary lifestyle, smoking and abusing alcohol and not eating a balanced diet mainly fruits and vegetables that Chad has in abundance.
Dr. Jean-Bosco Ndihokubwayo also returned to another important means of cancer prevention, namely vaccination against hepatitis B at birth. Indeed, he noted, this infection is the basis of several cases of cancer in Chad and Africa in general. However, the hepatitis B vaccine is part of routine immunization in Chad. By vaccinating his newborn against hepatitis B, he pointed out, he is prevented from liver cancer.
In his interview, the WHO Representative spoke at length about the Cancer Registry, a tool for collecting and analyzing all the data available in the country on cancer. This tool, on which experts from the Ministry of Health and National Solidarity and WHO have worked together, is the foundation of the fight against cancer. Indeed, in public health, if we do not have data, we navigate on sight because we can neither appreciate nor evaluate the efforts made in the fight against a disease such as cancer. The cancer registry is a compass in the fight against this scourge. It is essential for the surveillance of types of cancer, their incidence in the population as well as the magnitude of the problem. It guides research and allows preventive and curative interventions to be planned according to the types of cancers. The who Representative to Chad also spoke of the importance of early diagnosis of certain cancers (whose means are limited but exist in Chad), in order to be able to manage them in time.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of WHO Regional Office for Africa.
