JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (ADV) – In line with its National Prevention Policy geared towards protecting the population from cancer through preventive measures, the Mauritian Government has been offering free cancer screenings, vaccination programmes for young girls.
This initiative has been done in commemoration of the World Cancer Day 2019. It included the recent Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine, and carrying awareness campaigns across Mauritius to educate the population.
Minister of Health and Quality of Life, Dr Anwar Husnoo, said an early cancer diagnosis would help to identify the disease and seek treatment at an early stage which can considerably help.
“World Cancer Day is an opportune time to raise awareness about cancer and to reflect upon Governmental as well as individual actions across the world against the disease,
“As far as Mauritius is concerned, Government is determined to improve the life of the patients by providing them with the best healthcare services and is therefore investing massively in the provision of modern equipment and facilities to diagnose and treat cancers,” he said.
Minister Husnoo made was speaking at the launching of activities in the context of World Cancer Day 2019 which was held at the Roche-Bois Social Welfare Centre recently. Following the launch ceremony, several activities were proposed to the public including breast and cervical cancer screenings, yoga demonstration, cooking exhibition, and medical check-ups.
He emphasised the need of mobilising individual and collective actions to help raise awareness regarding cancer which is responsible for the death of millions of people around the world and hence increase the likelihood of surviving an early cancer diagnosis.
The Minister however, expressed concern that cancer was the second-leading cause of death worldwide with some 9.6 million victims last year, which is expected to increase by 70 percent in the next 20 years.
Dr Husnoo noted that cancer was the third cause of death with 1366 deaths in 2017 compared to 889 in 2005. He said more women tend to be affected by cancers with about 4153 women compared to 2700 men among the new cases of cancer registered in 2017.
According to the Minister, the increasing cases of cancers could be explained by the ageing population, sedentary lifestyle, poor diet as well as alcohol and cigarette addictions.
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