Promiscuity causes cancer
By Azoma Chikwe
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
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•Ekanem
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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Women who live promicuous lives are not only at the risk
of contracting HIV but also cancer of the cervix which, as
the most common cancer among women, has beaten breast cancer
to the second place.
Disclosing this during a Federal Ministry of Health parley
with the media on tobacco control in Nigeria, Prof. Ima-Obong
Ekanem said that the virus that causes cancer of the cervix
which is called the human patuloma virus, has certain types
of it that are sexually transmitted.
“People who are active sexually run the risk of contracting
the virus and it can transform their normal cells to cancer
cells,” Ekanem explained.
The ex-president of Nigeria Cancer Society advised that women
can go for the pap smear test which picks up early cancers
of the cervix. She further stated that with the smear, there
is a simple test to be carried out by a gynaecologist and
when these early cancers are picked up, the patient can be
treated and will not die from advanced cancer.
Diet
Apart from smoking, your diet can contribute to your having
cancer. If you eat diet that are high in calories –
high carbohydrate, high saturated fat, high sugar, they can
cause cancers of the breast, of the intestine, of the stomach
and so on. And if you live a promicuous life, there is this
transmission of the virus that causes cancer of the cervix.
That is the virus we call human patuloma virus. There are
certain types of it that are sexually transmitted. So, people
who are active sexually run the risk of contracting this virus
and it can transform their normal cells to cancer cells.
Bleaching
For women who bleach their skin, the use of skin bleaching
agents can expose their skin to the damaging effect of radiant
energy in the sunlight. And that can cause skin cancers, including
what we call the melanoma. Apart from the lightening agent
causing chronic damage to the kidney, people can develop kidney
failure because of the use of lightening cream.
So, your diet, your lifestyle and habit, such as cigarette
smoking can cause different types of cancers and of course
transmission of infection.
There is this particular parasite that you find in pools of
water that causes schistosomiasis or bilherzia. It also causes
bladder cancer. People in farming environment, where they
use water to irrigate the land, can get infected by that particular
parasite and it can lead to bladder cancer. And for those
people, it is only when they start passing blood in urine
that you will know that they have the infection. It is not
that men are now menstruating. No. It may be as a result of
bladder cancer or infection by that parasite that causes it.
Treatment
Cancer can be treated. We have different types of treatment.
We have surgical treatment, we have chemotherapy where you
use drugs, you do immuno-therapy, you can do radiation therapy.
Depending on the type of cancer, you choose the type of treatment.
Sometimes, you have to combine surgery and chemo-therapy or
surgery and radio-therapy.
We have radio-therapy units in Lagos University Teaching Hospital
(LUTH), National Hospital, Abuja, University College Hospital
(UCH), Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH),
Zaria and also in Eko Hospital, Lagos. Those are few selected
centres and they are limited to certain localities of the
country. In the East, I don’t think there is any functional
one, I heard there is a plan to have one at University of
Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu to establish one.
If that eventually comes, that should be the only one in the
eastern part of the country.
If we have a national spread of all these facilities, it will
go a long way, because patients with cancer in Calabar, are
referred to Lagos or Ibadan or Abuja. By the time they get
on the long queue for their own turn of treatment, they might
even die. So, it is better we have a national spread of the
cancer treatment facilities, set up more cancer registries
so that we can know the data of cancer in our different regions
and then work out plans for treatment.
Fortunately, the Federal Government has a national expert
committee on non-communicable diseases. A policy is coming
up now to look at cancer among those non-communicable diseases.
Hopefully, there will be preventable measures put in place
by government to help pick up the early cancers, treat the
treatable ones and give palliative care to people that have
advanced cancers. The cost of treatment is more affordable
when the cancer is detected early.
Rate of the disease
Cancer is on the increase in Nigeria. We have a few cancer
registries in the country and the data from such centres show
that there is an increase in the number of cancers. Some of
these cancers are preventable because they are related to
diet and lifestyle. People who smoke tobacco is known to be
associated with a long variety of cancers, including lung
cancer, cancer of the throat, cancer of the bladder, cancer
of the mouth, cancer of the cervix, even cancer of the pancreas.
So, if we target tobacco as one of the cancer causing habits,
we could be cutting down the number of cancers that are tobacco-related,
which is about 30 per cent overall. What the Nigerian Cancer
Society is doing is to intensify its public awareness campaign
on the warning signs of cancer, the risk factors of cancer,
then every year we observe the World Tabacco Day. We also
have our cancer week that comes up the last week of November
every year. We also observe one week of activities to enhance
public knowledge of the common types of cancers and what may
lead to them.
Now, the Nigerian Cancer Society is a well-spread body. It
is a national body. It has a national president and the members
from the six geo-political zones in Nigeria. And our main
area is public awareness and enlightenment on cancers in the
society. We also undertake cancer screening, like cancer of
cervix and we can also screen for breast cancers. Any centre
where you have Nigerian Cancer Society functional, like in
Lagos, Ibadan, Calabar, Kaduna, Maiduguri, Enugu, cancer screening
activities are organised.
The women, can go for the pap smear, which is a smear that
picks up early cancers in the cervix. There is a simple test
carried out by the gynaecologist and when those early cancers
are picked up, the patient can be treated and she will not
die from advanced cancer, because most of the women come with
advanced cancers, whether it is in the breast or in the cervix.
If you pick it up early it is likely it could be cured.
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