National Assembly was informed Thursday that Pakistan is on top among the countries with regard to spread of breast cancer.
Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar in response to a calling attention notice said that every fourth woman in Pakistan is suffering from this disease.
The minister described lack of awareness among women as one of major reasons for spread of this killing disease and urged that Rural Health Centres and Basic Health Units will have to play an important role in preliminary diagnosis.
MNAs Maiza Hameed, Romina Khursheed Alam and Shaza Fatima Khawaja had drawn the attention of the minister towards spread of breast cancer that claims lives of 40,000 women in the country every year.
The minister said the country lacks a proper data collection mechanism on this disease and the figure of 25 percent women suffering from cancer is consistently noted since 1973. “This means that spread of this disease is on rise.”
She said it is unfortunate that like some other disease there is also no data collection mechanism at federal level. “We had a system many years back but it was wrapped up due to lack of funds. Now we are once again trying to put in place a data collection system to know updates about this disease.”
Answering questions of the members, the minister said, hospitals and health units at village and town level have a vital role to play for early diagnosis of this disease on basis of early symptoms and prior to going for detailed tests.
She further stated that policy guidelines have already been sent to the provinces to deal with this dilemma as she also invited a role by women parliamentarians for raising awareness in remote and rural areas.
Answering another question, the minister said, although there is no specific fund allocated at federal level to start an awareness raising campaign, even yet we are committed to concrete measures to control this disease.
