Cancer stats trouble Health ministry
Sharon Mathala | Tuesday February 7, 2023 06:00
According to the population-based Botswana National Cancer Registry (BNCR), 21,834 cases of various types of cancer were diagnosed and registered between the years 2005 and 2017, with 1,400 new cases of various types diagnosed annually on average.
Botswana joined the globe in commemorating World Cancer Day last Saturday with the ministry hosting a local event in Masunga. World Cancer Day, commemorated every February 4, was first held in 2000 as the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) initiative.
The commemoration this year was themed, 'Close the Care Gap'. Speaking at the event, Assistant Health Minister Setlhomo Lelatisitswe highlighted: “Botswana has begun to join the international community in commemorating this important day from 2004.
This event has been held in different districts across the country and is mostly coordinated by Non-Governmental Organisations.” “Cancer has got no cure nor medicine and so the only super remedial measure to it is the style of living that an individual adopts and commits to it. Thus the health activities one routinely undertakes and the way one looks at their diet.
So let’s be encouraged to go out there and begin to mobilise our friends, family, co-workers, and members of our communities to adopt healthy lifestyles to curb the risk factors for cancers and other (non-communicable diseases) NCDs," the minister told attendants. He said that the cancer pandemic has affected almost everyone in Botswana in one way or another. “Almost all of us here personally know someone who is affected by cancer, and worse, those who have succumbed to the disease.
It is either we witness the fight against cancer by our loved ones directly or we see the worries of their families and friends,” the assistant minister said. "We need to commit at the individual level, and surely if we do, in solidarity we shall together emerge the champions from this cancer battle,” the assistant minister urged.