Teenage girls in Ghana are developing breast cancer in their numbers, that’s according to Breast Care International.
Young girls in the ages of 14, 19 and 20 have recently been diagnosed of the disease at the Peace and Love Hospital in Ghana, and are undergoing treatment. However, doctors are struggling to treat the 20- year-old diagnosed in late-to-end-stage of the disease.
According to President of Breast Care International, Dr Beatrice Wiafe Addai, Epidemiology of the disease identified among teens in Ghana is worrying given that the mean age group known to be vulnerable to the disease was women above 43 years .
“We’ve realized that in Ghana and Africa, the disease is striking the younger ones, it is no more the older the woman that are getting the disease. In Africans the disease strives earlier, in Ghana our mean age is 43 years, in the developed world their mean age is 68years”.
In an interview with the Media Saturday in Koforidua after Breast Cancer and Health Screening exercise organized by the Eastern Regional branch of Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) in Collaboration with BCI, the leading Breast Cancer Campaigner, Dr.Wiafe Addai said the type of breast Cancer which recurs in Africans are aggressive hence difficult to treat when not detected early.
“In Africa we have a lot of triple negative disease-subset of breast cancer that is aggressive and difficult to treat but this is the type that is very common in Africans and sole black Americans as well”.
Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai who Chief Executive Officer, Founder and Medical Director of the Peace and Love Hospitals, Accra and Kumasi, further stated that in spite of the technological advancements in management of breast cancer, the disease remains the leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide.
“Breast cancer is the number one killer disease among women the World Over, so globally the disease is on the rise. Not Ghana alone so all our efforts are geared towards diagnose and for cure. It’s only when we diagnose that we can talk about curing the disease”.
She therefore urged young women to frequently examine their breast and seek for diagnoses for early detection and treatment but hastened to advice the youth to desist from bleaching, drinking alcohol, smoking and sedentary lifestyle identified among the risk factors of the disease.
The Eastern Regional Chairman of GJA, Maxwell Kudekor in an interview said though this exercise was held in tandem with upcoming maiden Regional GJA awards to be held in May, it will be a quarterly exercise for journalists to have vigorous medical examination to identify any hidden illness for early treatment.
He added the intended periodic health screening will be preceded with aerobic exercise which will be led by experts while dietitians and lifestyle coaches will be contracted to provide health advice to media personnel on healthy lifestyle.
Some journalists who participated commended the regional executives of the association for the exercise.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Kojo Ansah
