There is one common practice amongst people here and that is the believe that they can seek medical help elsewhere that isn't the hospital or a medical center. For illnesses like malaria and typhoid, a lot of people have turned to holy water, anointing oil, rubutu, or zamzam and while I always say that there is a place for religion and beliefs, there is also a place for science and medical treatment but it looks like we have this habit of mixing them up.
It even becomes very traumatic for the medical team and observers when people take their families and loved ones away from the hospital in severe medical cases such as cancer. I was at the pediatric oncology ward recently, and tear s dropped to my chin. One part that got me wary was when a woman brought back her child to the ward after taking him to the village and so many religious home for cure. I will touch on this later but for now, let me explain cancer a bit.
Cancer is not a disease so it is not like malaria where a person gets it and that's it. Cancer is an array condition that has to do with mutated (changing) body cells, where the normal cells start to change and overgrow themselves because they do not have the gene to stop them from growing. This can be as a result of changes in the gene which could be a deletion, addition or a change in the gene and this can happen in any part of the body.
Compared to adults where cancers are attributed to some risk factors such as smoking, obesity, and alcohol, in children there are no risk factors, it is just genes in their body mutating leading to excessive production of cells. Cancers are quite common than we think and when people think that children don't have cancer, it is usually because of their knowledge about it but cancers can come in different from from the eye (retinoblastoma), kidney cancer (Nephroblastoma, Wilms tumor), blood cancers (Leukemia), bone cancer, mouth cancer, skin cancers and every other part of the body that has cells.
Majority of the time, children do not get cancers from their parents but when there are times where children inherit mutated genes from their parents and this can lead changes in their body. In children, finding out early enough can go a long way in treating and curing it but how do you find out early? Signs like change in color of the eyeballs (eye cancer), protrusion of the area of the body, a mast in soft areas of the body like the abdomen but for some types of cancers such as blood cancer, the symptoms can be non-specific with symptoms that can be similar to other types of diseases.
Some cancers can be cured if detected early like Wilm's tumor but there is a God forbid syndrome in our population which has made a lot of people not report their symptoms or come for treatment after diagnosis, rather they run off to religious place of worship for pray against it only to come back when the case has worsen. I understand why lot of people have this God Forbid syndrome and this is because there is a saying that you are one cancer away from bankruptcy.
The inability for the average nigerian to pay for treatments including cancer is one of the reason why a lot of them have to resign to their fate. The average nigerian pay their medical bills out of pocket and this is very sad and one major reason why a lot of people cannot afford their treatment. I went online recently and I saw a myth that a lot of nigerians hold dearly and this is that cancer feeds on sugar but this is nowhere near the truth, it is just a myth and when you are starving the cancer cells of sugar, then you are starving the body of sugar. Also, there is no study or research that shows that sugar increases cancer growth.
Back to the woman who brought back the child. The child succumb to the cancer and it was a painful event. There is a lot to be done with cancer in Nigeria, from funding, getting machines, a good number of doctors, and possibly insurance that cover these type of conditions. I broke down in tears after the event for a moment and I got over it quickly but I cannot say the same for the parents and family of the child.
You Can Study More
https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/nigeria
https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/w/wilms-tumor
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23259-wilms-tumor
https://www.chop.edu/conditions-diseases/wilms-tumor-kidney-tumor
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3438369/
https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/GO.22.00107
https://projectpinkblue.org/cancer-in-nigeria/
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/what-is-cancer
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer-in-children
https://www.cancer.gov/types/childhood-cancers
https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/childrens-cancer/about
https://www.cancer.gov/types/childhood-cancers/child-adolescent-cancers-fact-sheet
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