There are currently no recent statistics available to give an accurate rate of the country’ cancer situation. However, Minister of Public Health, Ms. Volda Lawrence, said “if we were to judge by the trend over the [past] ten-year period, then we have every reason to worry. Our need to intervene becomes even more imperative….”
The Minister, who was speaking at a Pan American Health Organisation [PAHO] coordinated workshop at the Kingston, Georgetown Pegasus Hotel today, revealed that based on Guyana’s cancer data during the period 2003 – 2012, a total of 6,518 cancers were recorded with an annual incidence rate of 87.3 per 100,000 population.
Participants at the workshop.
She revealed that the number of females affected was 3,956 or 60.7 percent while the males affected were 2,561 representing 39.3 percent.
Other speakers at the opening of the workshop, which saw the attendance of several health officials who play a key role in the fight against cancer and other NCDs, were PAHO Representative, Dr. William Adu Krow, and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Shamdeo Persaud.
It was in fact Dr. Adu-Krow’s intent to situate the workshop within the context of the Ministry of Public Health’s priority plan to strengthen national efforts to address the spate of non-communicable diseases and in particular the high incidence of cancers.
The World Health Organization, the International Monitoring Agency for NCDs, has revealed the startling data that NCDs are the leading cause of deaths worldwide accounting for 82 percent of all deaths in humans. The statistics further substantiate that all groups and all regions are affected, that high-income and more so medium and low income countries are all at risk by NCDs, that is, some 28 million deaths in low and medium income countries.
As such Minister Lawrence today concurred that “We have to respond effectively and promptly to the threat of NCDs inclusive of cancers and seek ways to eliminate the preventable loss of life.”