By Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, Uganda’s health minister, has urged people to put prevention above treatment.
She made this call at the second Africa Test and Treat Initiative against Cancer and other Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) conference in Kampala on Thursday,
According to a recent estimate, the number of new cases and deaths from cancer in Africa is expected to reach 1.1 million in 2020, which is worrying given the continent’s high cancer death rate. The research, which looks at 34 distinct cancer categories across 54 African nations, shows a sharp rise from 2008–2009: new cases increased from 715,000 to 1.1 million, while mortality increased from 542,000 to 711,000.
She underlined the value of routine hospital examinations to detect and treat illnesses other than NCDs at an early stage.
“Uganda has minimal funding for cancer. We allocate barely enough money, about 52 billion,” Aceng said before urging Ugandans to avoid becoming cancer victims.
Globally, NCDs account for a staggering 41 million deaths annually, representing 74% of all global deaths. In low- and middle-income countries, this figure climbs to 86% of premature deaths. Among various NCDs, cardiovascular diseases claim the most lives (17.9 million), followed by cancers (9.3 million), chronic respiratory diseases (4.1 million), and diabetes (2.0 million), with kidney diseases included in the latter figure.
