Africa-Press – Tanzania. PARENTS from families with cancer hereditary have been urged to educate their children on the disease, earlier enough so that they get prepared on how to manage it.
The advice was given by Dr. Atukuzwe Kahakwa from the Moshi based KCMC Zonal Referral Hospital in Kilimanjaro region, recently during the Cancer Prevention and Awareness Camp (PrevACamp) held at the Tanzania Police School (TPS popularly known as CCP) grounds.
“It is important for children from such families to be informed on the history of the disease in their respective families, and how to deal with it as soon as one feels or sees early symptoms,” he said.
Dr. Kahakwa added, “It will be part of reducing the severity of the disease….these children should develop a culture of routinely checking their health and start ealing with the disease as soon as it occurs.”
Responding to questions from some of the camp’s participants, Dr. Kahakwa said that men also can get breast cancer just like woman.
“Breast cancer can affect both women and men, not just women, therefore men are also responsible for screening to determine if they have the disease or not”, he added.
During the occasion Dr. Kahakwa cautioned expectant mothers to be careful, adding that any abnormal behavior(s) would automatically affect their foetus and lead to cancer infections.
“Any pregnant woman should avoid working in the mines, taking alcohol and smoking, to name but a few,” he pointed out.
In a related development, the medic cautioned the public against using any cancer-related drug(s), unless authorized and prescribed by a doctor or health expert.
“There are others who assume automatically that they are cancer patients and start taking drugs to treat the assumed cancer…this is dangerous. It is dangerous because if you take cancer drugs when you do not have the disease, you will get side effects due to the severity of the drugs,” Dr. Kahakwa pointed out.
On his part Dr. John Minja also from KCMC Zonal Referral Hospital, explained that professionally, there was no official direct link between diabetes and cancer.
Responding to a question from one of the camp’s participants, Dr. Minja said that there has been a perception in the public that there is a link between the two ailments.
“Studies show that this concept is based on the interdependence of these diseases in one way or another, including the delay in recovery of a diabetic person, who has also developed ulcers,” he said.
The medic added, “The delay in recovery of ulcers and sometimes the amputation of a finger or even a leg is considered to be as a result of cancer and this has led people to develop the concept.”
According to him, the delay in a diabetic person taking time to recover is as a result of sugar increasing in the body, and worse if he/she gets develops a sore.
“I urge people to avoid panic and instead develop a habit of regularly checking their health, and contacting health specialist once one finds out that one’s life has symptoms of any disease,” he added.
On her part, the PrevACamp Coordinator, Ms Evelyn Ndossi, said the camp was aimed at providing education to the public, after realizing that young people were in a good position to spread the education once enlightened.
“Among the participants in this camp are students, who from here… will go to work in different parts of the country; it is clear that the education they receive here will spread throughout the country”, she said.
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