By Our Correspondent
The Minister of State for Health & Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, has charged the management of the National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (NICRAT), to prioritise prevention as the backbone of the fight against cancer.
He gave the advice when he went for a familiarization visit to the Institute in Abuja, recently.
Dr. Salako urged the Director- General of NICRAT, Dr. Usman Malami Aliyu and his team “to prioritise research around prevention, services around prevention and, advocacy around prevention as a key element of its agenda.
“We know that whether we prevent, people will still come under with the disease. So, we must also be prepared to provide qualitative care for people with the disease. To catch them very early through screening services.
“This is a very important disease that we must frontally address. Which means that our efforts, our strategy need to be optimally tailored towards prevention and control, towards increasing awareness, towards improving the health literacy of Nigerians. Because quite a number of these cancers are preventable.”
In order to galvanize energy to halting the spread of the disease, the Minister charged both the Cancer programme in the Ministry and NICRAT to synergize and collaborate towards a successful World Cancer Day Celebration next month.
Commenting on the Cancer Health Fund (CHF), the Minister explained that it is a special Fund set apart to assist and support vulnerable Nigerians in all parts of the country.
“It is currently operating in some centres and, it’s targeted at specific cancers, not all cancers.
“So, this is an initiative to ensure that care is made available to vulnerable Nigerians who cannot afford it. We are hoping that during this budget cycle, we can expand the Cancer fund and make it more robust.
“And then, if there are more resources available, we can bring on board more centres and more cancer types”, the Minister assured.
Speaking, the Director General of NICRAT, Prof. Malami commended the Minister for visit, noting that it demonstrates the “Minister’ commitment and determination to, without delay, make positive impact in our activities towards achieving our mandate.”
While explaining the efforts of the Institute in putting the needed structures to combat the disease, Prof. Malami said: “Since inception of this Institute close to two years ago, we have always reiterated our determination to work with both local and international stakeholders to combat and reduce the burden of all forms of cancers to the barest minimum in the country.
“Hon. Minister sir, it will interest you to know that immediately we came on board, we made effort to build a robust cordial working relationship and partnership with International organisations like St. Jude Children’s Hospital, USA; International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), African Cancer Registry Network (AFCRN), Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center and Milken Institute. These partnerships have given us a strong footing in our efforts to fight cancer to a stand-still in Nigeria.
“Before the end of last year, the Institute successfully coordinated the conduct of an ImPACT review in-country mission to Nigeria involving the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and world Health Organization (WHO), with experts from Nigeria. The report of this important activity aimed at strengthening cancer care and control infrastructure in Nigeria is being awaited.
“Also, in order to increase cancer workshop force in the country, few months ago, NICRAT organized the training and retraining of healthcare workers on various aspects of cancer care, prevention, treatment and control at various levels of care. As at December 2024, over 1,200 healthcare workers at the primary, secondary and tertiary health facilities across Nigeria benefitted from the series of trainings.”
