Alvi calls for breast cancer awareness to reduce mortality rate

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday stressed the need to disseminate awareness messages about breast cancer to every house across the country to ensure early detection of the disease and reduce the mortality rate.

He said Pakistan had successfully handled polio and this experience also helped the government to successfully handle Covid-19 later on. Now, he said the country was also driving the breast cancer awareness campaign very effectively. Addressing the Breast Cancer Awareness Programme here, the president said awareness about other key health issues including mental health, stunting, and women’s health should also be raised along with the breast cancer awareness campaign as it was very important to keep women healthy for a healthy nation.

Highlighting the family system in the country, the president said that a woman was the key member of a family that must be kept healthy, financially empowered and also kept safe from any kind of harassment in society. The president said empowering women economically was linked with overall economic growth. Dr Alvi said in Pakistan 24 percent of the total population was suffering from mental diseases that were due to diseases and financial issues. He also stressed the need to control the population by increasing the access of the people to long-term contraceptive products as it was key to the development of the country both in terms of health and economy.

Citing China’s example, the president said its rapid development was due to its special focus on health and education. He maintained that due to the lack of resources in the country, prevention should be focused on avoiding chronic disease at a later stage.

First Lady Begum Samina Alvi urged the women to learn how to make self-detection to ensure timely diagnosis of the disease. “Women should make a habit of self-examination for five months every month to minimize the death rate.”

Appreciating the role of media in the success of the campaign, the First Lady said the media should continue its role in raising awareness about the disease. She said she initiated the breast cancer awareness campaign five years ago and now the topic that was considered a matter of discomfort and taboo to discuss, was now being discussed at every level. Expressing pleasure over increased awareness about the disease, she hoped that the campaign would help further increase the message to every door across the country.

Begum Samina Alvi informed that every year some 44,000 women die of breast cancer which could be avoided by early diagnosis. The early diagnosis ratio in the world was 98 percent however in Pakistan most of the cases were reported at the third and fourth stages where the chances of death were high, she added. She, however, expressed her satisfaction over the increasing number of cases being reported at the first and second stages due to the awareness campaign.

Begum Alvi said the death rate among breast cancer patients in Pakistan was 48 percent which was alarmingly high. She asked people not to feel any hesitation while discussing this disease. She said the taboos and myths about the disease were now being broken and people were now freely discussing breast cancer disease at every forum.

Caretaker Minister for Health Dr Nadeem Jan on the occasion said the government needed to increase the health budget in the country by up to 4 percent of GDP which was currently only 1 percent of GDP.

Country representative for Pakistan World Health Organization Dr Palitha Gunarathna Mahipala while addressing the ceremony appreciated President Dr Arif Alvi and First Lady Begum Samina Alvi for raising awareness about breast cancer in Pakistan.