COULD THE MAGNITUDE OF CANCER IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES BE EXPLAINED BY PEOPLE’S LAXITY TO SEEK EARLY TREATMENT?

The incidence of cancer is rising in African countries It has been noted that about 650,000 people in Africa develop cancer annually. Because treatment remains largely unavailable or inaccessible, about 510,000 cancer deaths occur annually, an 80 percent mortality ratio. More than one-third of the cancer deaths in Africa are due to cancers that are easily preventable and/or treatable if detected early. Cancer kills more people in Uganda compared to Tuberculosis, Malaria and HIV/AIDS combined, health experts have said.
The study combined several research methods that included secondary data from various reports, news articles, journals and documents dotted around in different agencies, which have tried to address the cancer challenge, environment impacts of cancer and development issues of the country. Observation was also utilized to analyze the relationship between magnitude of cancer and people’s laxity to receive diagnosis for their health problems with a focus on the different health issues and how they affect people’s health
To this day Uganda has the highest infection rates in the world with 60% of cancer infections. Survival rates of preventable and treatable cancer infections stand at 10%. Experts blame this on patients who go for diagnosis at later stages of illness when treatment is often least effective.