On World Cancer Day, celebrated Thursday, Mauritius opened a new cancer centre in Phoenix, 15 km south of the capital, Port Louis, to offer a better service to people suffering from this disease.
Health and Wellness minister Kailesh Jagutpal called for greater individual and collective awareness and responsibility to fight off cancer.
He stressed the importance of screening and prevention and assured that awareness campaigns against non-communicable diseases will continue throughout Mauritius.
Citing official figures from the Union for International Cancer Control, he said that cancer has, in 2020, killed 10 million people worldwide.
“Mauritius is no exception and the rising global incidence of cancer is also reflected in our local context with more than 2 600 new cancer cases registered in 2019,” the minister indicated.
According to Jagutpal, more cancer cases can now be detected in an efficient manner.
Observing that some of them can be caught very early through sensitisation campaigns, he said the Central Health Laboratory analysed 1,800 samples for the presence of cancer in 2019.
“When the disease is detected early, it facilitates the patient’s medical treatment and very often leads to a cure”, the minister said.
On a broader note, Mr Jagutpal emphasized that the impact of the coronavirus on healthcare services for cancer patients has been catastrophic worldwide as more than 50% of governments worldwide have been forced to completely or partially discontinue their cancer treatment services.
According to the Cancer Registry 2019 Report, new cases of cancer have increased in both females and males by 12.1%, with an increase of 9.7% in females, and an increase of 15.5% in males. Men suffer mostly from prostate cancer while women from breast, colorectal and ovarian cancer. (PANA/NAN)
