Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 12, 2008 News
Health Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has said that his ministry does not have any evidence to indicate that cancer is mainly an African-Guyanese problem. The cancer finding was the subject of a report in a local newspaper.
The Health Minister noted that the evidence at the Ministry of Health does not support any linkage between cancer and a particular ethnic group.
“We have no such evidence. I think when people speak loosely they create major problems. Certainly, in large populations you can find evidence that certain types of cancers can be found in one ethnic group than another, but in Guyana we have no such evidence,” Ramsammy said.
He added that the Cancer Registry in Guyana is still voluntary, and persons have a choice on whether or not they want to register themselves if they have cancer, and therefore, the registry cannot be utilised as research for persons to make conclusions.
“We need to have a much more serious type of study done in order to make those types of conclusions, and people must be utterly confused.
We have to do real studies, and people should not speculate this way. I want to caution people that the Cancer Registry in Guyana at this time is still a voluntary reporting process.
There is no law to force anyone to register, and there is no law to force any health institution to report the cases,” Dr Ramsammy explained.
He said that the new public health laws that are being drafted will make cancer a reportable disease, and as such he cautioned persons not to utilise the data so recklessly.
“It is a reckless use of data, and as Minister of Health I object strenuously, and I would wish for people to be a little bit more cautious”, Minister Ramsammy noted. He reiterated that cancer deaths in Guyana represent a major cause of mortality in the country.
For males, cancer is the number-three cause of death, while for females it is the number-four cause of death. Overall, cancer is the third leading cause of death in Guyana.
As it relates to the ministry’s cancer awareness programme, Dr Ramsammy admitted that there is room for improvement in terms of spreading awareness about the disease and how to prevent it.
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