Media practitioners sensitised to breast, cervical cancer
Sixty senior media practitioners drawn from the northern sector of the country have attended a day’s sensitisation workshop on cervical and breast cancer at the Peace and Love Hospital in Kumasi.
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The workshop, organised by Breast Care International, in collaboration with the Peace and Love Hospital, was to enhance the knowledge and understanding of the participants of breast cancer and related non-communicable diseases, to improve their coverage in support of public education.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the President of Breast Care International (BCI), Dr Beatrice Wiafe Addai, urged the media to give the needed attention to breast cancer to increase public awareness of the disease.
Major role
She stated that journalists and radio presenters had a major role to play in the education of women and the public in general on the need for early reporting of such diseases to the health centres for treatments to avoid unfortunate consequences.
Dr Wiafe Addai, who is also the Chief Executive of Peace and Love Hospital, said the nation would not develop when its citizens were unhealthy, and therefore stressed the need for the media to play a leading role in the education and control of breast cancer, which was killing more people in the country.
Lack of awareness
She said lack of awareness, high cost of treatment, lack of counselling and training had contributed to the spread of the disease in the country, and called on nursing training institutions to place a lot of emphasis on breast cancer management in their curriculum to enable nurses to manage the disease effectively.
Dr Wiafe Addai said BCI had over the years trained over 100 nurses from the various hospitals and health centres in the country in effective management and control of the disease.
Other contributors included Prof. Seth Wiafe and Dr Lawrence Tawiah from BCI. In their various contributions, they attributed the causes and high rate of the disease to poverty, lack of awareness, fear and stigma.
