Skip to main content

FG to upgrade 7 cancer centres …plans two machines for each centre


The Federal Government says it will upgrade seven cancer treatment centres and provide additional machines to reduce the burden of the disease in Nigeria.

Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, made this known in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.

“As we are talking today, there is no public hospital that has cancer treatment machine that is working.

“Ideally, we need one machine per one million people; going by our population, Nigeria should have about 200 cancer treatment machines.

“We have seven machines, but none of the seven machines is working today,” Adewole said. According to him, the Federal Government will ensure that each of the seven centres has two machines; “which means one will be a backup in the 2017 budget’’.

He said government would upgrade the cancer treatment centres in Maiduguri, Zaria, Ilorin, National Hospital, Ibadan, Benin and Enugu in the first phase of the programme.

The minister said government would get a private sector organisation to help with the National Hospital Abuja; disclosing that “in fact we may sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) this month’’.

Adewole said: “If we take National Hospital out, we will upgrade the Sokoto centre and Gombe is also waiting, while Jos will be in the second round.’’

He said government was committed to making sure that Nigeria has the facilities.

The minister said that the burden of cancer is of concern to the present administration, adding that the ministry would revise the National Cancer Plan for effective response. He added that the ministry would constitute a National Cancer Steering Committee to be chaired by him.

He described cancer as one of the major problems in the country, noting that “the problem is increasing as we grow older’’.

According to Adewole, more people will have cancer, because as we grow older, those divisions that take place in our system grow abnormal.

“We are working with the media to increase awareness on cancer; with increase awareness many of those early signs of cancer will make people to go to hospital and get treatment.

“Most cancer can be treated if presented early, but people don’t come for treatment early.

“Fortunately we now know what causes cervical cancer. There is a vaccine now that prevent the disease and we are working to make the vaccine available,’’ Adewole said.

He added that the ministry was training more people on the detection of cancer of the cervix.

Adewole advised Nigerians to be careful with the way they handle genetically modified foods, stressing that there are a lot of misconceptions
and myths about cancer.

“We do not have accurate knowledge as to what causes cancer,’’ he warned.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Home nations fined by Fifa over poppy displays

England have been fined 45,000 Swiss francs for several breaches of Fifa's rules about displaying political symbols, the sport's governing body have confirmed. The national team wore poppies on black armbands during their match with Scotland, despite being warned not to by Fifa, costing the Football Association just over £35,000. Prior to kick-off, both teams participated in a minute's silence and members of the armed forces lay wreaths. The Scottish Football Association and the Football Association of Wales have each been fined 20,000 Swiss francs (£15,692) and the Irish Football Association 15,000 Swiss francs (£11,769) for similar offences All of the associations were warned by to the World Cup qualifiers that they would be punished if they chose to ignore Fifa's regulations on the matter.     England has been fined CHF 45,000 for several incidents in the framework of the England v Scotland match, including the display by the host association, the English team and s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Buhari confirms appointment of Niger Delta Power Holding’s CEO

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of a substantive Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer and two Executive Directors for the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited (NDPHC). Joseph Chiedu Ugbowho was in an acting capacity is now the substantive Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the company. Others are Mallam Babayo Shehu, Executive Director (Finance and Administration) and Engr. Ife Oyedele, Executive Director (Engineering and Technical Services). A statement signed by Bolaji Adebiyi, Director (Press),Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said Mr. Ugbo is a legal practitioner and infrastructure regulations specialist with extensive experience in electricity industry reform and privatization. “He has Bachelor and Master of Law Degrees from the University of Lagos and was admitted to practice Law in Nigeria in 1991. For over 15 years, he provided legal advisory services to public sector power entities including legal support t...
Post a Comment
Read more

N’ Delta: How Adaka Boro was tried, convicted

Adaka Boro came into prominence in 1966 when proclaimed an Independent Niger Delta Peoples’ Republic with a flag and an emergency constitution. He paraded himself as the General Officer Commanding the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (DVS) and leader of the Liberation Government. Due to Boro’s intense agitation for resource control, it was learnt that he formed a band of fighters and allegedly trained them in the use of explosives and arms. Sometimes in March 1966, Boro, armed with a theory he called XYZ, declared Ijaw Republic thus: “Today is a great day, not only in your lives, but in the history of the Niger Delta. We are going to demonstrate to the world what and how we feel about oppression”. The activist and his followers also allegedly attacked a police station, blew up the armoury and took rifles and ammunition. They also reportedly blew up oil pipelines and engaged the police in a gun battle. Boro and two of his followers, Samuel Timipre Owonaru and Nottingham Dick were arrested ...
Post a Comment
Read more