Nigeria has over 2 million cases of cancer – AMLSN

The Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) on Saturday said the country has over 2 million  recorded cases of cancer with 100, 000 new cases annually.

The association stated this in a communique it issued at the end of the association’s 52nd Annual Scientific Conference and workshop which ended in Jalingo on Saturday.

In the communique signed by its president, Alhaji Toyosi Raheem the association attributed the high rate of tumour and cancer in the country to a shift from the consumption of natural to artificial food and lack of regular physical exercise by citizens.

According to the communique, indiscriminate, unregulated and over use of herbicides and insecticides on the farms also contribute to the development of tumour and cancer in humans.

It commended the Federal Government for the establishment of National Cancer and National Cancer Control Programme.

The communique, however urged the FG to fully equip the centre and the programme with adequate human and infrastructural resources so as to promote early screening, confirmation and management of tumour and cancer.

“We call on the federal government to fully equip the cancer centre and programme it has established with adequate human and infrastructural resources.

“This will ensure early screening, confirmation and management of tumour and other health challenges as the rate of late cancer diagnosis and detection is on the increase.

“This development makes treatment and management almost impossible thus making cancer appear invincible,” it noted.

The communique also called on the Minister of Health, Prof. Issac Adewale to integrate Nigerian Medical Laboratory Scientists into the Rapid Results Iniative (RRI) and Save 1 Million lives Iniative of the federal government.

It explained that medical laboratory scientists set the pace and direction for movement of the entire medical team towards success in health care delivery.

The association also appealed to the federal government to tackle what it termed, victimization of certain health professionals by some Chief Medical Directors in hospitals in the country in order to enhance service delivery.

It could be recalled that the association’s scientific conference which was declared open  on Tuesday by Gov Darius Ishaku of Taraba State was graced by hundreds of medical laboratory scientists across the country and other invited guests.