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Francis Okoye, CNS Correspondent, Nigeria Taking place under the slogan ‘We can. I can’, World Cancer Day 2017 explores how we can all work together—collectively and as individuals— to reduce the global burden of cancer. Just as cancer affects everyone in different ways, all people have the power to take action to reduce the devastating impact that cancer has on individuals, families, communities and the country as a whole. In a webinar organized by Citizen News Service, lung cancer expert Dr Navneet Sigh , senior tobacco control expert with the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease (The Union) Anne Jones , and cancer survivor Nita Mullick mapped out steps towards reducing preventable cancer deaths, in keeping with the sustainable development goals. Dr Singh revealed that 30% of all cancer cases are of lung cancer, and it is most common in men. It has a high fatality rate as 5 out of 6 patients die in developing countries. Smoking is a very high and yet avoidable risk factor...

Francis Okoye, CNS Correspondent, Nigeria (First published in Nigeria Politics Magazine ) In a webinar organised for the media by Citizen News Service, titled ‘Are we on track to reduce breast cancer deaths by 1/3 by 2030?’ medical experts and breast cancer survivors shared their views on how to reduce deaths from this dreaded cancer. The panel of experts and cancer survivors included Priya Kanayson, Advocacy Officer, NCD Alliance ; Dr Pooja Ramakant, Associate Professor, Department of Endocrine and Breast Surgery, King George Medical University ; Prof Anand Mishra, Head of Department of Endocrine and Breast surgery, KGMU; and Bret Miller, Founder, Male Breast Cancer Coalition and a breast cancer survivor himself. According to Priya Kanayson , “Breast cancer is the most common killer cancer in women. Men can develop breast cancer too, even though only less than 1% of all breast cancers occur in men. Unless urgent measures are taken, an estimated 19.7 million cases of breast cancer w...

Francis Okoye, CNS Correspondent, Nigeria [First published in nigeriapoliticsmagazine.com ] Medical and media experts gathered recently in a webinar hosted by Citizen News Service to deliberate on how to address the world’s deadliest childhood infection: pneumonia. According to the Global coalition against childhood pneumonia (GCACP), pneumonia is the most deadly infectious illness for children under age 5 worldwide. Even though from 2000 to 2015,the annual death toll from childhood pneumonia decreased from 1.7 million deaths annually to 920,000 in 2015, approximately 2,5000 children still die from pneumonia every day. This amounts to 16 % of all child deaths. Over 90% of these deaths occur in South Asia and sub Saharan Africa. The experts who gave talks on pneumonia in children included Dr Steve Graham , Professor of International Child Health, University of Melbourne, Australia and a senior expert with the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) , Audr...

Francis Okoye, CNS Correspondent, Nigeria Medical and historical evidence now abound, showing that the world cannot fight AIDS by ignoring TB. In 2015, the world recorded 10.4 million new TB cases of which people living with HIV (PLHIV) accounted for 1.2 million (11%) cases. There were an estimated 1.4 million TB deaths, with 400,000 deaths resulting from TB disease among PLHIV. The risk of developing TB is 26-31 times greater in PLHIV. Nearly 75% of PLHIV who contract TB live in sub-Saharan Africa. In some countries in this region, up to 80% of individuals with active TB disease are also HIV-positive. TB-HIV co-infection increasingly poses a risk to people living in other regions as well. Around 30% of all people who become sick with TB live in Asia, where TB accounts for 40% of AIDS related deaths. Eastern Europe too has the fastest-growing HIV epidemic globally, making this region vulnerable to increasing TB-HIV co-infection as well. In a webinar organized for the media by Citize...

Francis Okoye, CNS Correspondent, Nigeria A webinar organized for the media by Citizen News Service, just prior to the 47th Union World Lung Health Conference, took a special look at lung health. Experts, who spoke on the matter, included Prof Jose A Caminero , Head of MDR-TB unit of International Union Against TB and Lung Diseases (the Union); Diana Weil , Coordinator policy, strategy and innovations unit,WHO Global TB programme; and Grania Brigden , the 3P Project Lead at the Union. Priority actions to fight TB (i) TB and poverty : Most people who suffer from TB are from poor countries and are also poor themselves. And this has made it difficult to fight the disease, because these poor nations do not have the funds to fight TB, and they do not deal with it on a war footing in most cases. (ii) Improve diagnostics : Quality diagnostics for TB should be improved, and made available free, or very cheap, so that most can afford it. To increase TB/MDR-TB detection, rapid molecular and sen...

Francis Okoye, CNS Correspondent, Nigeria Tobacco industry all over the world, is bringing death through its interference in health policies. Panelists at a webinar, recently organised by Citizen News Service on tobacco industry interference in WHO framework convention on tobacco control (FCTC) , said that tobacco industries have hijacked political and legislative processes, exaggerated the economic importance of tobacco industry, and manipulated public opinion to gain an appearance of respectability. It has been fabricating support through its various front groups (like the international tobacco growers Association ITGA), discrediting proven science and intimidating governments  with litigation or threat of litigation. Speaking on the matter Maitri Porecha , a noted journalist, said that tobacco industry interference is not new. We need to firewall health and development policies from the industry’s unrelenting onslaught . One thing is clear— public health is not on the tobacco in...

Francis Okoye, CNS Correspondent, Nigeria In a webinar organised for the media by Citizen News Service, in the lead up to World Heart Day 2016, health experts spoke on cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). They discussed ways and means to protect oneself from them, as they are the world’s leading cause of death, killing 17.5 million people every year. The experts included Rachael Shaw , project manager World Heart Federation, Prof Dr Rishi Sethi, Department of Cardiology, King George’s Medical University KGMU, and Alice Granger Gasser , programme development manager, World Heart Federation. Ashok Ramsarup, former senior programme  producer at South African  Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) moderated the programme. It has been a year since our governments committed to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) 2030, one of which is to reduce mortality from non communicable diseases (NCDs) by 1/3 by 2030. CVD is one of the 4 main NCDs—the other 3 being diabetes, cancer and chron...

Francis  Okoye, CNS Correspondent, Nigeria [First published in Nigeria politics magazine ] The current plans to fight and put an end to TB, Malaria and AMR By 2030, thereby meeting the SDG goals, seem to be in doubt, and may not become a reality. Health experts gathered together in a webinar organized by Citizen News Service recently to discuss the issue of ‘Are TB, malaria and anti microbial resistance (AMR) declining fast enough to meet SDGS by 2030?’ Experts who contributed to the discussion included Dr. Lucica Ditiu Executive Director, Stop TB Partnership, Dr Tim France, Team Leader for External Communication, Asia Pacific Leaders’ Malaria Alliance (APLMA) and Managing Director Inis Communications, Dr. Anna Nakanwagi Mukwaya, Country Director-Uganda  for International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) . The moderatos included Ashok Ramsarup-former Senior Programme Producer at South African Broadcasting corporation (SABC )and Shobka Shukla, Managing E...