By Ojoma Akor & Ismaila Isah
AstraZeneca in collaboration with the Medicaid Cancer Foundation has launched a programme to fight prostate cancer among Nigerian men.
Prostate cancer is the most common and deadly cancer among Nigerian men. It accounts for over 34,000 deaths annually. The challenges of late presentation and silence make intervention challenging with attendant deaths.
Why doctors are leaving Nigeria in droves – NMA
How our health sector can be developed – Doctors
Tagged ‘Project Icon-Nigeria’, the programme launched yesterday was designed to deliver free prostate cancer screening to men and provide awareness on other men’s issues such as mental health.
Speaking during the launch in Abuja, the founder of the Medicaid Cancer Foundation, and First Lady of Kebbi State, Dr Zainab-Shinkafi Bagudu, said a total of 1,200 men would benefit from the project in Kebbi and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
She said, “This particular project is a start of a wider project, The Cancer Care Africa, and we intend to pilot it with 800 persons in Abuja and 400 persons in Kebbi State and subsequently scale up as we carry out the project for six months.
The head of sub-Saharan Africa for AstraZeneca, Mr Arpit Bansal, said there was the need to encourage early detection of prostate cancer.
He said AstraZeneca’s commitment was not to only offer medications but to also help patients in the early stage.
