Government gear up cancer fight ,set to launch treatment guideline.

FIGHT against cancer is this year set to get to the next level as the government looks forward to launch the National Cancer Treatment Guidelines and embark on collecting population-based data of patients, the Minister of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Miss Ummy Mwalimu, announced,

She said that the guidelines will focus on preventive services from regional to zonal hospitals, where the screening and treatment of the disease are available. “In order to strengthen the quality of preventive services, screening and treatment, the ministry will launch the guidelines by March, this year,” she declared.

On collection of cancer data, Tanzania currently uses facility-based registry whereby data are collected from hospitals when patients go for treatment. Whereas the population-based registries can be used for monitoring the distribution of late-diagnosed cases of cancer - for which early diagnosis is the strategy for control, especially communities, ethnicities, age and other demographic groups.

She was speaking ahead of the World Cancer Day to be marked tomorrow during which several activities will be conducted countrywide, including screening and awareness campaigns. On this Day, organisa-tions and individuals around the world unite to raise awareness about cancer and work to make it a global health priority.

Every year more than eight million people die from cancer worldwide. This year and through 2018, the theme of World Cancer Day is “We can. I can,” meant to explore how everyone - together and individually - can do their part to reduce the global burden of cancer. In Tanzania, at least 50,000 patients are diagnosed with the disease each year, out of them, only 13,000, which is equivalent to 26 per cent report to hospitals for treatment. However, in the past two years, the number of patients going to the hospital for treatment has increased to 40 per cent.

“This was as a result of efforts by the Fifth Phase Government in improving cancer treatment services in the country’s hospitals,” she said. Though there has been such an increase of patients arriving at hospitals for treatment, 70 per cent of them report when the disease is already at an advanced stage, a situation which reduces the possibility to cure it.

“I call upon every citizen to have regular check-ups of their health and immediately start treatment when diagnosed with the disease,” Ms Mwalimu appealed. She reminded that from April, this year, the ministry is going to conduct a nationwide cancer vaccination to girls from the age of nine years to 14 years as another mechanism to fight the pandemic