Prime
Govt should increase cancer awareness, early screening
Patients and caregivers at the radiotherapy department at Uganda Cancer Institute on March 17, 2025. PHOTO/ TONNY ABET
What you need to know:
The issue: Cancer awareness
Our view: Government should increase funding to reach out to more communities and sensitise them about the importance of early screening
The high burden of cancer among women and the 20 percent cancer survival rate reported by the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) are serious issues that require urgent action to reverse. Moreover, the most common cancer among women is cervical cancer, which the experts at UCI indicate that other countries have almost eliminated through proven interventions like Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and early screening.
HPV is the infectious agent that is known to cause cervical cancer but the uptake of the vaccine against the bug has been low due to fears around the safety of the vaccine, largely driven by narratives not based on scientific evidence.
One of the rumours is that the two-dose HPV vaccine, which is given to young girls who are between nine and 13 years old, is allegedly aimed at reducing the African population and that it causes infertility later in life, a narrative which Ugandan scientists have challenged and dismissed. It is also important to note that this vaccine is being used across the world, including in developed countries such as the United States, according to information from the American government.
However, it is not only HPV vaccine that struggles with low uptake. The country is experiencing a wave of distrust of government programmes and interventions, partly driven by lack of transparency and also misinformation and disinformation on social media. This bottleneck requires addressing the transparency issues, more community engagement and sensitisation to reverse it so that health interventions bring desired outcomes.
Information from UCI also indicates that up to 80 percent of patients come with advanced cancer when the disease has spread to other organs, making it hard to achieve a cure through treatment. This partly explains the 20 percent cancer survival rate.
Cancer is a treatable disease and many people have been cured. Information from Korean government indicate that the survival rates for cervical, breast, prostate and thyroid cancers in Korea range between 81 percent and 98 percent.
An expert from Korea’s National Cancer Centre, Prof Jin-Kyoung Oh, indicated that they have a lot of cancer survivors, because they "detect many cases in early phase of cancer and survival rate is so high." In fact, she also indicated that many people in their country now feel cancer is like any other disease as opposed to situation in Uganda where many feel it is a death sentence.
To improve early detection of cancer, the government should revise its strategies, increase funding to reach out to more communities, sensitise them about the importance of early screening and also provide dignified care for the sick.
Prevention efforts should also be increased. According to information from the World Health Organisation, between 30 and 50 percent of cancers can currently be prevented by avoiding risk factors and implementing existing evidence-based prevention strategies.
