By Tolani Abubakar
In the last few years, Nigerians has witnessed a remarkable rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, etc. Unlike communicble diseases, which can spread from one person to another, NCDs are primarily caused by lifestyle factors such as unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, etc. This shifted attention towards a high occurrence of NCDs causes an essential challenge to Nigeria’s healthcare system which demands for urgent attention.
A Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), which is also known as chronic diseases, tends to be of long duration and also for which see caused by the combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioural factors. Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) kills nothing less than 41 million people each year, and this automatically equivalent to 74% of all deaths globally. Out of all the deaths that happens in NCDs, 77% comes from low and middle income countries.
There are some noncommunicable disease that are common than others, by which we are led to the four main types that we have and includes; Cardiovascular disease, Cancer, Chronic respiratory disease, and Diabetes. We would be taking ‘Cancer’ as a case study for this news.
CANCER
Cancer is a disease by which some of the cells in the body grows uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body. Cancer can start almost anywhere in the human body, which is made up of trillions of cells. Initially, human cells grow and multiply through a process called Cell Division, and this hppens in order to form new cells as the body needs them. When the body cells grow old or become damaged, they die, in that case there will be replacement of new cells take their place.
Cancer is a disease that affects people of all ages, socioeconomic statuses, genders, and ethnicities. It’s researched to be the second most-common source of NCDs death worldwide. There are types of cancer which includes; Carcinoma, Sarcoma, Leukemia, etc. Below are challenges /problems faced by Nigerians that tends to have cancer;
• Lack of healthcare information : A large population of Nigerians lacks adequate knowledge about cancer, they simply don’t know the risk factors, prevention methods etc. And also there alot of cultural beliefs which is hindering their effective education concerning their health.