Lady Julia Osei Tutu
The wife of Asantehene, Lady Julia Osei Tutu, has called for more behavioural change activities towards the lead to breast cancer prevention and risk reduction in communities across the country.
Expressing worry about the increasing incidence of the disease, particularly in the Kumasi Metropolis, Lady Julia pointed out that the situation is getting to an alarming proportion, which makes it a public health emergency.
The Kumasi Cancer Registry alone has recorded 600 cases of breast cancer last year.
She made the call at a breast cancer awareness project launch organised by the Union of International Cancer Control (UICC), in collaboration with the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and Mctonne Cancer Care Foundation.
She said the project, which is themed ‘Building Community-Based Awareness & Navigation For Breast Cancer and Palliative Care in Kumasi’, will generate a model care for women with advanced breast cancer by implementing structured-patient network and navigation interventions that will reduce delay in accessing and optimizing care among these women.
“This is the first of its kind in the country and it is my fervent hope that this will be scaled up to others parts of the country,” she added.
The Special Advisor to the Health Minister, Dr Baffour Awuah, said palliative care is an important component of breast cancer treatment because of exaggerated fears about the disease.
“We need concerted effort to increase this awareness creation drive to ensure early reporting by our women to health facilities,” he stated.
The project coordinator, Comfort Asoogo, said survival rate is low because of late reporting of breast cancer patients, aside complex navigation systems at hospitals.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi