and diphtheria could pose a treble threat, climax in a public health emergency, claiming avoidable millions in deaths and infirmities; and billions of Naira in economic costs.
Still, a frame is something. Putting that frame to good use is another. That is why the minister — and Dr. Tunji Alausa, the health and social welfare minister of state —should tackle these potent challenges before they turn avoidable crises.According to the Association of Radiation and Clinical Oncologists of Nigeria , 78, 000 Nigerians yearly die from cancer-related illnesses. These deaths are from 125, 000 yearly reported cases, translating to 62.4 % of deaths from reported cases.
The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare should partner with ARCON, so that the government can formulate policies, and design accelerative programmes, to make cancer diagnoses and treatment much more accessible and effective. Such publicity drives should also incorporate reckless dietary habits and lifestyles, and how they trigger cancer: processed foods leaning more towards western diets, smoking, excessive alcohol intakes, multiple starchy foods, without a healthy balance of vegetables and fruits.
This dangerous flare is also easily explained by urban stress: imagine some Lagos folks, for instance, leaving home for work as early as 5 am, returning no earlier than 10 pm, grabbing very late dinner and having barely five hours of sleep, five days-a-week! Diphtheria is a childhood/teenage disease that again falls within the purview of primary health care, with established regimes of free childhood vaccines. Yet, diphtheria has latterly wreaked a sick harvest of lives, because some parents have not availed their infants and tots the available vaccine advantages at the right time.
Such huddled homes also condemn the children to direct contact with infected people, expose them to droplets from coughing or sneezing, and also make them have contact with contaminated clothing and objects. Tackling poverty is beyond the purview of the Federal Ministry of Health but public campaigns against poor sanitation is not.