Mediaboss Marketing

The Chief Executive Officer of the Optimal Cancer Care Foundation, Dr. Femi Olaleye, has said that cancer kills more Nigerians each year than any other ailment.

Describing cancer as a serious threat to health in the country, Olaleye urged Nigerians, especially women, to protect themselves from the disease by undergoing regular medical screening.

Everybody is at risk of having one cancer or the other, but some people face greater risks than others. Regular cancer screening is good service for every Nigerian. It will give you the necessary information about your health, he said.

Olaleye said this on Wednesday during a lecture at the 2013 retirement and awards ceremony of the Women in Technical Education and Employment, Yaba College of Technology chapter, in Lagos.

The doctor, whose foundation aims at screening 10,000 women for cancer in Lagos alone, warned that early sexual intercourse among women might lead to infection with the Human Papilloma Virus, causer of cervical cancer.

Cervical cancer is the number one killer of women in Nigeria at present. It is the major factor that causes death during childbirth. In fact, for every woman killed by breast cancer, two others die of cervical cancer, he said.

Olaleye noted that a timely detection of cancerous tissues through screening and vaccination of female children, which should begin from age 10, could help prevent full-blown cervical and breast cancer.

He advised the women to minimise the risk of breast cancer by practising constant self-examination.

Breast cancer begins as a tiny lump and it grows with time until death occurs. The best way to prevent this or reduce deaths caused by the ailment, by almost 99 per cent, is to always check your breasts for such tiny lumps, he said.

Also, Olaleye described prostate cancer as mostly responsible for the untimely deaths of men over 40 years in Nigeria, adding that the incidence could be checked through screening.

Go here to see the original:
Cancer, number one killer disease in Nigeria – Olaleye