Staff Reporter :
Unhealthy food habits, unaware lifestyle, and negative impact of industrialization and technology are pushing high the number of cancer patients in Bangladesh.
World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated the number of cancer patients more than 15 lakh, mostly children and teenagers.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics revealed about one-third of cancer patients are children and adolescents of 01 to 19 year age group. Out of them mostly are children between 15 to 19 years.
Experts said government has to strengthen more cautionary measures including mass awareness among the people.
When contacted, former Adviser of World Health Organisation (WHO) Professor Dr. M. Muzaherul Huq, told The New Nation, “Government has to strengthen its mass awareness measures to reduce risks of cancer spreading.”
The expert said the government has to start registration of cancer patients in Bangladesh. Such registration would pave way to easy treatment processes, he added.
Besides, he said, vaccinations also would be a key preventive measure and should ensure it among the risky people including women.
The BBS revelation said about 13 percent children are affected by cancer before reaching to the age of only four years.
Besides, one percent children are affected between 10 years to 14 years and two percent are in their 5 year to 9 year age.
Experts said environmental hazards in city life, chemical reaction in foods and impact of genealogy are the main causes of cancer.
Dr SM Rezanur Rahman of Child Hematology and Oncology Department of Dhaka Medical College said genetic reasons are mostly responsible for cancer.
If there is any cancer patient in the family, it might be a problem for the next generation.
He said, environment pollution, food habit, indiscipline lifestyle are also main reasons for cancer.
Males are mostly affected by cancer after their birthwhile women become affected when in their older age, according to the BBS survey.
Number of cancer patients in the cities and villages is also different. The ratio of affected children in city areas is about 27 percent more than villages.
Professor Dr AKM Amirul Morshed Khasru of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology Department of DMC conducted a research on the types of cancer in children and teenagers.
As per the research, children and teenagers are mostly affected by leukemia.
Thirty-one percent cancer patients are affected by the leukemia and 26 percent children and teenager are affected by brain and spinal cancers while 10 percent patients are affected by lymph cancer.
Besides, five, six and seven percent patients are affected by renal, neuroblastoma and soft tissue cancers respectively. On the other hand, the children are also affected by bone, germ cell and other cancers.
The expert said food habit and uses of technology in industrial areas are the main reasons for cancer. Most of the cancer patients are curable and may lead a normal life if the disease could be diagnosed at early stage.
