Harare (New Ziana)-The Cancer Association of Zimbabwe (CAZ) has appealed to the government and other stakeholders for increased cancer awareness campaigns and funding to set up affordable treatment facilities for the disease as the country joins the rest of the world in commemorating breast cancer awareness month.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an annual global campaign meant to raise awareness about the impact of breast cancer.
In an interview with New Ziana, the Cancer Association of Zimbabwe Evaluation and Research Officer, Lovemore Makurirofa said it is very worrying that a lot of citizens do not know much about breast cancer in Zimbabwe.
“We encourage churches, cooperates, organisations and family members to spread breast (cancer) awareness this October, because the majority of the public is very ignorant about it. The colour for awareness is pink,” he said.
He also bemoaned the ignorance amongst men, most of whom believe that breast cancer only affected women.
“Men do not believe they can develop breast cancer; this is dangerous because they delay screening and also delay accepting their condition. Most of the time, the cases will be severe when we diagnose them, some will be in stage 3 or 4 which will be difficult to treat and also expensive to control.”
On the funding aspect, Makurirofa said most treatment facilities in the country were privately owned and were expensive.
The drugs too, he said, were expensive.
“There is limited funding for cancer in Zimbabwe, there is no dedicated funding that caters for cancer, as a result all cancer intervention programs are underfunded,” he said.
Makurirofa said according to the 2017 statistics, breast cancer contributed 8 percent to national cancer deaths.
“Breast cancer contributed 14 percent to the total cancer burden amongst women in Zimbabwe. It also contributed about 35.8 percent of the cancer burden amongst many blacks in Zimbabwe,” he said.
Special commemorations would be held this Friday.
“We usually give free screening services during this time of the year, but due to certain constraints, we will be charging a little fee, which will go to help people with breast cancer.”
New Ziana
