TZW
Speaking in Dar es Salaam, the Minister of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, said this year’s campaign eyes vaccination of 616,734 girls to protect them from the adverse health effects of cervical cancerto ensure this campaign becomes a success.” The Minister explained that cervical cancer was the leading killer among women followed by breast cancer.
“These two types of cancers contribute to 50 per cent of all deaths that result from cancerrelated illnesses among women in the country.” She said that cervical cancer was mainly caused by involvement in sexual activities at young age, indulging in sex with multiple partners, giving birth to a huge number of children and cigarette smoking.
She said signs of cervical cancer include bleeding after sexual intercourse, backache, experiencing pain in the legs and waist, feeling exhausted, loss of appetite, smelly virginal discharge. She said signs that indicated the problem were severe including failure of the kidneys to perform their duties properly, loss of blood and fistula. According to her, the objective of vaccinating the girls was to protect them from the health problems caused by the disease, including death.
The Minister said Tanzania has also recorded tremendous achievements in the fight against other diseases that could be prevented by vaccines such as polio. She said that for the past 18 years, Tanzania has not registered any single polio case. Meanwhile, DEUS NGOWI from Moshi reports that while the government continues to fight cancer among girls and adults in all fronts, the disease has begun to pose huge threats among young children. This was revealed by the Head of the Moshi-based KCMC Super Referral Zonal Hospital’s Cancer Care Centre (KCMC CCC), in Kilimanjaro Region, Dr Furaha Serventi, during a cancer awareness camp (prevAcamp), at TPC Hospital in Moshi, over the weekend.
“The types of cancer that affect young children are those of the eyes, brain, skin and blood cancers and this disease is currently growing rapidly among children,” said Dr Serventi. “Blood cancer among children is likely to infiltrate kids between four and 10 years of age, whereby most of them are boys,” he said. He mentioned symptoms indicating the disease in children’s cases that include high fever especially during night hours, gland inflammation and joint pains. He appealed to parents who notice those symptoms among their children to immediately consult doctors, because the disease can be treated if detected early.
Speaking during the camp, the TPC sugar factory’s Chief Executive (Corporate Affairs), Jaffary Ally, urged people to stop stigmatising cancer patients in order to reduce the pain which they are subject to as a result of the disease. Mr Ally, who was the guest of honour during the camp, congratulated the KCMC Hospital management for organising the PrevAcamp camp at TPC, where he said it opened a new page of awareness and understanding among the residents of Kikavu Chini area.
“May I take this opportunity to appeal to people to join health insurance fund so that they can afford medical costs, that begin with a thorough examination of health status through screening,” he said. He added, “Cancer effects become worse among many people because most of them are unable to afford the cost of checking their health including early testing”.
He promised TPC Company’s support to the KCMC CCC, especially in providing education to more people including staff of the factory located at Kikavu Chini area. “The leadership of the factory will hold a special seminar in May, this year, for TPC staff before the start of the new production season, so that the workers and their families will receive this important education on cancer,” he said.
The KCMC CCC founder and PrevAcamp Co-coordinator, Mrs Antije Henke, said the camp was a continuation of PrevAcamp camps, where she said the camps aim to conduct more than 5,000 investigations over the next two years, since they were officially launched in 2017.
Giving his greetings during the camp, a German cancer specialist, Dr Oliver Henke, said the PrevAcamp camps programme, was organised by the KCMC Hospital in collaboration with the Bavarian Lutheran Church Department of Germany and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT).