Use government health facilities – Agosu advises Ejigbo residents
By Motolani AbdulGafar
As Nigerians join in celebrating this year’s World Cancer Day, the Medical Officer of Health (MOH), Ejigbo LCDA, Dr Adewale Agosu. Adewale has urged all residents to utilise medical facilities provided by the government in all Primary Healthcare Centres across the council area.
Dr Agosu made this call in a chat with ECHONEWS with the aim of educating and creating awareness of the disease in accordance to the publicised successive theme of the Day between 2019-2021.
Speaking about the theme “I Am and I Will”, he disclosed that this year’s campaign phrase “Together, all our actions matter” symbolizes that the collective campaign held all over the world has had a great impact in creating awareness to save millions of people of preventable deaths which has triggered the governments to formulate laid down procedures to educate and enlighten the masses on the disease.
“Of course Ejigbo local government does enlightenment. At Iyana Ejigbo for instance, we do free cervical screening for women so that we can quickly detect anybody that has any symptom, intervene and treat the patient so that it would not lead to cancer.”
In Nigeria, Dr Agosu explained, it is estimated that men are liable to contracting prostate and lung cancer while women are prone to cervical and breast cancer due to certain pre desposing factors they expose themselves to.
He explained the various cancers including cancer of the liver that can be caused by infections like hepatitis and cancer of the lungs mostly caused by smoking.
He advised that men from age 40 and above should do screening once or twice a year, noting that prostate cancer is common in men.
He disclosed that many independent organisations have partnered with the local government for sensitisation exercise to take place in the community in order to avert any problem that can lead to cancer.
He said: “Even in secondary schools, we have started teaching female students on how to do a self breast examination as our health education department mobilises people to gather where they sensitise the masses on every disease. But presently due to Coronavirus, we educate people through the social media to avoid the spread of the disease.”
The MOH, therefore, advised all Ejigbo residents to cultivate the habit of visiting medical centres, informing that the State Government has made adequate provision to cater for the masses “but it is left to them to patronise the centres because the health of the people is the wealth of the nation.”
