Indus Hospital turns pink in solidarity with breast cancer patients and survivors

Breast cancer affects approximately 2.1 million women worldwide every year. In Asia, Pakistan has the highest rate of breast cancer, said a statement issued by The Indus Hospital on Wednesday.

At some stage of life, one in nine Pakistani women encounter breast cancer while the number is much lower for men, i.e. one in 1,000. Every October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month marks a month-long campaign to help increase awareness of the disease and honour the bravery of

patients.

The Indus Health Network (IHN) illuminated The Indus Hospital’s (TIH) Korangi campus, Sheikh Saeed Memorial Campus, and Al-Fakir Trust Campus buildings pink to show solidarity with breast cancer patients. The initiative was taken to draw attention and acknowledge the bravery of cancer survivors.

During the drive, pink ribbons were also distributed among patients, visitors

and staff. According to Dr Nuzhat Irfan Malik, consultant radiologist at The Indus Hospital, to improve breast cancer outcomes and survival, early detection and screening were highly important.

“Early diagnosis helps in providing timely access to cancer treatment and improves access to effective diagnosis services. Screening consists of testing women to identify cancers before any symptoms appear.”

The Indus Hospital has been offering diagnostic and surgical services to breast cancer patients since 2007 and soon plans to launch an exclusive breast cancer clinic. Since 2007, 1,497 patients have visited TIH for consultation 777 of them were diagnosed with breast cancer, while 507 biopsies and 652 mastectomies have been performed.

The Indus Hospital

Initiated by some doctors, philanthropists, and businessmen, in 2007, Indus Hospital started providing quality and free healthcare to all in a 150-bed hospital in Karachi.

Changing the paradigm of healthcare in Pakistan, Indus has now evolved into the Indus Health Network (IHN). The IHN is managing 12 hospitals across Pakistan, four of them are IHN-owned while eight are public hospitals, run and managed under a public-private partnership programme.

Global Health Directorate (GHD) is the public health arm of the IHN. It implements community and facility-based programmes across the country. The GHD runs community-based public health programmes across the country to control TB, malaria, HIV, hepatitis, and AIDS. The IHN’s Research Centre makes targeted efforts towards improving health in underprivileged communities/ low-income households.

The IHN is running four physical and rehabilitation centres in the country. The IHN has a modern blood transfusion service at Korangi Campus and it has four regional blood centres. The IHN model is being used as a case study in the Global Health Directory Project of the Harvard

University.