‘Go For Breast Check’ Bawumia Advises Women

Vice President Dr. Bawumia has encouraged Ghanaian women to make it a duty to examine their breasts often to enable early treatment of cancer.

This was when he joined Breast Care International in organising a screening and sensitisation forum for women in Accra Newtown and surrounding areas as part of events to mark International Women’s Day of celebration (IWD).

He said breast and cervical cancers still remain the most commonly diagnosed cancer and are also the principal causes of cancer deaths among women globally.

According to the “Ghana breast Health Study”, breast cancer is considered the leading cause of death among women, with a mean age of 49 years, followed closely by cervical cancer.

The 2020 GLOBOCAN report indicated that Ghana recorded 4,645 new breast cancer cases, with a mortality of 2,060.

In Ghana, it is also estimated that the majority of breast cancer patients are women below the age of 50 years, a direct and startling contrast to Caucasian women who are often diagnosed at around 62 years.

Current estimates indicate that every year 2,797 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 1,699 die from the disease, with Cervical cancer ranked the 2nd most frequent cancer among women in Ghana.

It is in view of this that the Vice President and his office decided to participate in this year’s IWD’s health education and screening about the most common cancers affecting Ghanaian women(breast and cervical).

Dr Bawumia was confident these activities by Breast Care International, will go a long way to help Ghanaian women not to take their health for granted, and help to reduce the number of women reporting with late stage disease.

He therefore encouraged women to go early to the hospitals to ensure cure from these cancers.