In Chad, statistics on cancers are “fragmented and limited,” mainly because of the poor access to diagnosis of affected people.
With the technical and financial support of the World Health Organization (WHO), Chad will have a cancer registry “essential for surveillance, registration, research and control.” According to a statement copied to APA on Monday, this document will also enable the country to know the extent of the problem in order to take appropriate measures.
According to the Chadian Ministry of Public Health and National Solidarity, the cancer registry is “a robust tool (for) a continuous and exhaustive collection of personal and clinical data on people with cancer in a geographically defined population.”
Last week, “focal points from the country’s 23 health provinces and N’Djaména” received capacity building training. “For better cancer surveillance, it is imperative to have reliable data, hence the importance of training experts in data collection, analysis and management,” the source said.
In 2020, the Pathological Anatomy and Cytology Unit of the National Reference University Hospital showed that out of 367 cases of histopathological diagnoses, 108 were cancers, all organs and all ages combined, i.e. a proportion of 29.42 percent.
The Chadian authorities believe that “this is the tip of the iceberg” because “diagnostic capacities are very low throughout Chad in the absence of a technical platform for the treatment of cancer patients.”
During the training session for focal points, the Director General of the Ministry of Public Health and National Solidarity, Ismaël Barh Bachar promised that the cancer registry will be operational in 2022 in order to have “an early (and) effective prevention system.”
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