Nigeria Joins Global News Coverage of "We Can, We Should, We Will Conquer Cancer" with Report Noting Cancer Survivors and Experts are Helping to Set the Agenda for World Leaders

Lagos, Nigeria —  Ahead of the United Nations high-level meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) slated for September, the American Cancer Society (ACS) hosted cancer survivors, cancer control advocates and experts in New York, United States, where they decided that cancer must be fought at the highest level of government, if the world is to be saved, writes Assistant Editor (News)

OLUKOREDE YISHAU 

Princess Nikky Onyeri was  in New York, United States to tell the world that cancer is not a death sentence. In 1993, she was at a clinic in Nigeria to have medical check-up. The doctor simply had a feel of her left breast and pronounced she had only six months to live, having been inflicted with cancer. 

After a second opinion in the United Kingdom, she realised that the situation was not as bad as the Nigerian doctor had painted it. She only had a benign cyst.  After a year in the UK, she got over the cyst and returned home. 

In New York, she joined many other cancer survivors from some 50 countries who went to the United Nations to call for a radical shift in the global body’s commitment to taming cancer.

Onyeri, who, in the last 15 years, has been committed to increasing awareness about cancer, believes that the global leaders’ high-level meeting on Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) in September must boost the fight against NCDs, such as cancer. That was why she, Oluwakemi Oyegbile, another cancer survivor and Seun Akioye, a cancer control advocate, met last Monday with Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Prof. Joy Ogwu, to discuss the need for the country to be more committed to the fight against NCDs. 

She said: “Cancer is not a killer disease. With the United Nations High-level Meeting in New York in September  2011, it is my sincere hope that women who suffer from cancer will receive attention in the outcome document that will be released at the end of the session.’’ 

Onyeri and over 80 other cancer surivors, journalists and cancer control advocates were flown into New York by the American Cancer Society (ACS),  as part of its well-coordinated efforts to persuade world leaders to quell NCDs. 

The ACS took this decision because of the fact that cancer is ravaging both wealthy and developing countries, and accounts for more deaths than tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

The ACS, in a report made available during the New York sessions, said almost 80 per cent of the world’s deaths from NCDs occur in developing countries. In China and India, such NCDs are rapidly emerging as major health challenges, fuelled by lifestyles and diets change.

The incidence of cancer in low-income countries shows the ACS report is expected to rise by 82 per cent by 2030. The expected rise in richer countries is 40 per cent. 

“The costs of doing nothing increase as non-communicable diseases rise, overwhelming resource-poor health systems and slowing economic growth,” the report indicates. The ACS cites the World Economic Forum (WEF) report, which shows that NCDs are among the three greatest risks to the global economy because of the escalating cost of care, the threat to productivity from death and lingering disease and the impoverishing impact on families. 

Sadly, noted the report, less than three per cent of global health aid is directed at preventing and treating non-communicable diseases. Another sad tale: though developing countries bear 80 per cent of the global cancer burden, only about five per cent of the money spent worldwide on cancer goes to the developing world. 

Jordanian Princess Dina Mired, while addressing journalists and cancer survivors at New York’s plush Pierre Restaurant, described the situation as “cancer genocide.” She said gone were the days when cancer ‘’passed unnoticed’’ as the disease of the rich. She said all must act to address the cancer epidemic.

Speaking, Nobel Laureate Dr Harold Varmus said there is an urgent need to tackle cancer and other NCDs in a global effort, because of the many unanswered questions about cancer and its link with infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria. 

Varmus, who is director of America’s National Cancer Institute, said a lot of hope is also being placed in medical advances and the increasing availability of cheap cancer drugs that were once beyond the reach of the developing world. 

Director of the Institute of Public Health at Georgia State University, Prof. Michael Eriksen, called for stiffer tobacco control measures as a way of fighting NCDs. 

He said: “Smoking is all about image and cigarette packages represent extremely powerful images just like traditional marketing used to. Plain packaging is still a long way off in the US because of the power of the tobacco industry. But sometime in the future, it will eventually become the norm.”

Eriksen’s observation makes sense when juxtaposed with the fact that of the many countries that have ratified the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), less than 10 per cent has domestic tobacco-control policy. 

Nigeria is awaiting the assent of President Goodluck Jonathan to the National Tobacco Control Bill, which is the domestication of the FCTC. 

United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro said raising awareness is the economical way to fight cancer and other NCDs. She urged governments, the private sector, the academia and scientists to join forces against this deadly scourge.

Migiro spoke at the UN secretariat, New York last week Monday during a Media Forum on NCDs, organised by the ACS and the UN Department of Public Information, for the reporters who participated in the pre-UN High-level September meeting.

She said without all stakeholders joining forces, the fight against NCDs cannot be won.

Migiro said: “Unlike sicknesses caused by a mosquito, a virus or an infection, NCDs are linked to factors like food, tobacco, environmental pollution and a lack of exercise. These may sound like matters of individual habits. After all, people can decide for themselves whether they smoke or drink too much or whether they fail to get exercise or over-eat. Changing individual’s habits is essential, yes. A major part of our campaign will be to promote exercise, reduce excessive consumption of alcohol and cut the use of tobacco products. But this is not only a campaign for individuals. 

“Governments can take decisions that reward and encourage healthy habits. Equally, they can raise the financial cost of unhealthy habits. Governments can also strengthen healthcare for people with NCDs. They can fund research. Academics and scientists can foster progress. And the private sector can make sure that, while they pursue profits, they also protect health. Companies can adjust formulas of their foods to include better ingredients and ban those that are known to be harmful. Companies can also act responsibly when marketing products to children. And all of us can take measures to keep harmful chemicals out of our environment. Raising awareness is a simple and economical way to prevent NCDs.”

She added that the bulk of new cases of NCDs can be prevented if the main risk factors such as tobacco use, excessive consumption of alcohol, unhealthy diets and lack of exercise can be checked.

Migiro condemned the impression that NCDs are illnesses of the rich, saying Africa has the highest rate of people living with raised blood pressure and that poor countries suffer 80 per cent of the NCD death toll. 

Migiro said the UN High-level meeting on NCDs slated for September will provide the needed political will to fight the diseases. “We at the United Nations are strongly committed to doing everything we can to help,” she said.   

The commitment Migiro spoke about, according to ACS’s National Vice President, Nathan Grey, had been lacking. He said policy makers and governments have largely ignored cancer and other NCDs.

He said: “While we have made and continued to make progress against diseases that were termed incurable at some time, cancer is still under reported and underfunded. The percentage of public and private health funding of cancer in low and middle income countries is just 5 percent.” 

No wonder, ACS’s Vice President of Regional Strategies Alessandra Durstine said the United Nations High Level Meeting provides “an incredible opportunity to put the spotlight on the importance of cancer control and to give a global voice to those affected by cancer and other non communicable diseases.”

The world is waiting with anxiously to see what happens during and after the UN High-level Meeting on NCDs next September. 

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Migiro said the UN High-level meeting on NCDs slated for September will provide the needed political will to fight the