Experts demand cancer screening at upazila level

Primary cancer screening services should be integrated at Upazila Health Complexes, speakers at a conference said yesterday.

They were speaking at the ‘1st National Conference on Cancer Screening’ at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU).

Community Oncology Centre Trust organised it, along with National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital (NICRH).

According to the World Health Organization, screening is the use of simple tests across a healthy population to identify individuals who have the disease, but do not yet have symptoms.

Bangladesh has an estimated 13 to 15 lakh cancer patients, with two lakh new patients diagnosed each year.

At a policy dialogue session, Prof Syed Abdul Hamid of Institute of Health Economics at Dhaka University showed that Tk 2,000 crore in a year is enough to bring all possible patients of major NCDs under treatment, by imposing Tk 10 levy charge on average to all mobile phone users per month.