Cancer patients miss out on treatment [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Cancer patients miss out on treatment

Local November 17, 2015

Over 15 lakh cancer patients in the country struggle to get treatment as there are only one bed for 3,000 cancer patients and only 85 posts of oncologists to treat them at government hospitals.
In the inaugural session of two-day ‘Bangladesh Cancer Congress-2015’ in the city on Monday, physicians expressed concern over poor medical facilities for cancer patients stating that over two lakh new cancer patients got no access to treatment every year.
The number of cancer patients is on the rise and many of them find the treatment too expensive to be afforded by them, the physicians said.
They said that about 2.5 lakh people were getting affected by cancer and 1.5 lakh of them died every year in the country.
They said that 15 cancer treatment centres were currently running under the public and private initiatives which could provide treatment to only 50,000 patients every year while the rest two lakh patients remained outside any treatment facilities.
Former Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University oncology department chair Syed Akram Hossain told New Age that there were about 170-180 cancer experts in the country.
Bangladesh Cancer Congress-2015 member-secretary Mafizur Rahman said that cancer became the second deadly disease in the world. Cancer was alarmingly increasing in the developing countries including Bangladesh, he said.
According to research papers presented at the conference, breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among the Bangladeshi women, which constitutes 25 per cent of all cancers.
Patients of oral, lung and liver cancers were also increasing, they said.
Bangladesh Oncology Club in cooperation with the Bangladesh chapter of SAARC Federation of Oncologists organised the congress aiming at refreshing the physicians and survivors of cancers about knowledge on progress of medical science in the treatment of cancer.
According to World Health Organisation, although one radio therapy treatment centre should be set up for every 10 lakh people and at least 160 centres are required for 160 million people in Bangladesh. There are few radio therapy machines available in some divisional cities including National Cancer Institute in Dhaka and Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
According to a study of International Agency for Research on Cancer, the current mortality rate of cancer
stood at 7.5 per cent in Bangladesh and if existing situation continued, the morality rate would increased to 13 per cent by 2030.
Oncology Club Bangladesh chairman MA Hai presided over the inaugural session.
Speaking as chief guest, national professor Abdul Malik said that there was huge shortage of skilled physicians, nurses and technologists for the treatment of cancer in Bangladesh.
Describing cancer as non-communicable disease, he stressed the need for taking measures and creating awareness to prevent cancer diseases.
Oncology Club Bangladesh general secretary AMM Shariful Alam called for strengthening regional and international cooperation and collaborations to fight against deadly cancer.
Organisers said that a total of 22 oncologists from 14 countries including Australia, United Kingdom, Singapore, India, Malaysia and Nepal were taking part in the conference and 14 scientific seminars would be taking place in two days.
The prevalence of cancer per 1,000 people rose to 0.71 in 2014 from 0.4 in 2000, according to the latest survey on health and morbidity status.
A newly developed scorecard by an international group, including International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, showed that Bangladesh performed poorly in reducing non-communicable diseases.
The scorecard results, published recently in medical journal Lancet, showed that many countries including Bangladesh were yet to introduce necessary actions to reduce deaths and disability from non-communicable diseases such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and chronic lung disease.