CANCER, A PROLIFERATING HEALTH PROBLEM

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Cancer is a global health problem on a constant rise. It is amongst major causes of morbidity and mortality globally, World Health Organization (WHO) reports.

According to WHO, each year cancer claims millions of lives around the world and even more millions of new cases are registered. 2008 WHO cancer report revealed that over 7 million people died of cancer, most of them from developing countries.

“There were 7.6 million cancer deaths (around 13% of all deaths) with 56% of the new cases and 63% of the cancer deaths occurring in developing countries and 12.7 million new cases were recorded around the world,” reads part of the report.

Meanwhile, about 14 million new cases were discovered in 2012 worldwide and the WHO fears that the statistics is expected to rise by about 70% over the next two decades.
The disease was accountable for at least 8.8 million global deaths in 2015 and WHO recent studies indicate that currently over 8.2 million people die from cancer worldwide every year, out of which, 4 million die prematurely (aged 30 to 69 years).
WHO stresses that most cancer deaths occur in developing countries which have squeezed resources in as far as fighting cancer is concerned. Approximately 70% of such deaths occur in low and middle income countries.
Malawi, along with other developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, has not been spared from the pandemic. Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) in 2015 recorded a minimum of ten new cancer cases daily and over eighty people were subjected to cancer treatment every day. 
Leo Masamba, a doctor at QECH, reports that an internal Ministry of Health survey of all central and district hospitals documented over 10,300 new cancer cases in 2010 in these facilities. In the same survey, other researchers document that 18,946 new cases of cancer were registered from 2007 to 2010 and it was estimated that, annually at least 8,151 new cases of cancer occur in Malawi. 
WHO estimates that by 2030, the number of new cancer cases and deaths will increase, globally, by 69% and 72% to 21.4 million and 13.2 million respectively.

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