Three Hospitals screen 5,520 for breast cancer cases in October
The Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, the Greater Accra Regional Hospital and the 37 Military Hospital throughout the month of October 2019 recorded a total of 5,520 breast cancer screening cases.
The Surgical Department at Korle-Bu recorded 1,716, while outreach screening initiatives recorded 1,647 respectively.
The Greater Accra Regional Hospital had a total of 1,023 with 103 abnormalities and the 37 Military Hospital also recorded 1,134 with 101 abnormalities as at October 30.
The three hospitals revealed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra.
Dr Josephine Nsaful, a General Surgeon of the Breast Surgical Unit, at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), speaking to the GNA indicated that out of the total, 373 abnormalities were recorded at the Korle-Bu Surgical Out Patients Department (OPD)and 66 during the outreach and were referred for various diagnosis.
Dr Nsaful said the awareness raised on the disease helped a lot and even though the month of October was over, they still had a couple of places to visit to examine more people and was hopeful that the numbers would increase.
He said the number of new cases recorded every year kept increasing adding that the need for every woman and lady within the age bracket to get checked became necessary.
Mrs Juliet Amewu, the Principal Nursing Officer at the Reproductive Health Unit, Greater Accra Regional Hospital, also urged women to on their own, practise the regular monthly breast examination to know when there was a change.
She said early detection and effective treatment could save the lives of breast cancer patients, and advised women to visit the hospital upon experiencing anything unusual.
Captain (GN) Edward Owusu Nyarko, the Officer In-Charge of Public Health Division at the 37 Military Hospital, said the free screening exercise recorded a lot of women visiting the hospital to have their breasts checked.
He encouraged a lot more women to check even after October.
However, the World Health Organisation estimates show that more than 4,000 new cases were diagnosed in 2018.
October is set aside globally as the Breast Cancer Month to help create awareness of breast cancer
The breast cancer awareness month is a yearly campaign to educate people on the importance of early screening, tests and starts on October 1 till October 31 every year.
Source: GNA