Ignorance has been identified by PinkCruise, a medical non-governmental organization, as the major cause of death of Nigerians from cancer (and other diseases), the killer disease that has been ravaging the world and has lower life expectancy in the country to 70.
PinkCruise said this in a release issued by its Executive Secretary, Dr. Abia Nzelu, as part of the NGO’s preparations to mark this year’s (February 4) World Cancer Day.
And to mark this year’s World Cancer Day in Nigeria, PinkCruise, has chosen the premises of Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Victoria Island, Lagos for all the activities and it will be doing that in conjunction with Journalists Against Cancer in Nigeria (JaCIN), a media advocacy group that was confounded in 2010 by the National Cancer Prevention Programme (NCPP), the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) and the Guild of Editors (NGE).
Earlier in the year, PinkCruise, had launched a fleet of specially built buses designed to combine provision of health education with public transportation; and the aim was to engender mass awareness so that members of the public can take maximum advantage of all aspects of the programme.
Cancer and its related risk factors, Dr. Nzelu, said in the release “are the major causes of untimely deaths in Nigeria.”
Dr, Nzelu went further by saying “the global cancer burden has risen to 18.1 million new cases and 9.6 million cancer deaths in 2018 up from 14 million new cases and 8.8 million deaths in 2016.”
To address this problem, she said that Mass Medical Mission (MMM), a part of PinkCruise, marked the last World Cancer Day by deploying four of the pilot set of the Mobile Cancer Centres (aka the PinkCuruise) to take holistic preventive healthcare to Nigerians.
