Licensed Medical Practitioner, Dr. Bernard Okoe-Boye, has called for breast cancer screening to be added to the required health checks that a woman is supposed to do when registering to get into an institution or to be on a payroll.
According to him, this can be made possible because per analysis, activities that are done during the month of October in relation to breast cancer awareness is making a lot of positive impact in the country and worldwide, hence the more people join in and the more noise is made about the condition, then the more a case is made and the more policymakers see the need to sit down to review what is on the table.
Dr. Okoe-Boye, speaking on the topic ‘Surviving breast cancer through awareness, care and management at the Danquah Institute organized Breast Cancer Awareness Symposium, expressed that, “We need to find a way to make regular breast cancer screening part of our annual activities so that we can get to the place where before a lady or a woman can register again biometrically to be on a payroll, one of the requirements will be her last breast cancer examination”.
He noted that until breast cancer screening results are attached to procedures that are normal, some people will still not yield to it.
Moving on, he spoke on the issue of people spiritualizing breast cancer at its initial stages and finally showing up at the hospital when they have already reached stage three or four where they cannot be cured. He also gave a possible solution to help reduce the mortality rate of breast cancer victims, especially those who find themselves in this box of spirituality.
Dr. Okoe-Boye reported that 70 out of 100 cases that are brought to the hospital at stage three or stage four were not just sitting at home during their stages one and two, but were visiting spiritual homes and their spiritual fathers for spiritual healing.
On that note, he suggested that the strategy that was used to address maternal mortality some years ago should be employed in addressing breast cancer mortality as well. That is, partnering with prayer camps, herbal doctors and the likes to transfer these women to the hospital when they come to them for healing.
According to the doctor, research showed that they were keeping the pregnant women so that they could get their money and the things that they present when they come in pregnant, hence the health ministry trained the traditional birth attendants and put it a policy where if they brought a pregnant woman to the hospital, they got paid for it.
Summing up, Dr. Bernard Okoe-Boye advised that picking up this strategy will go a long way to help control the death rate of breast cancer victims in the country. He added that breast cancer is treatable if it is detected within the early stages, hence, it is very important for people to report to the hospital early and save their lives instead of taking the wrong strategies to try and save their breasts.
By: Maureen Dedei Quaye
