Public health activists and physicians at a conference on Friday urged the government to create a special fund for cancer prevention and treatment to help poor people to fight the disease.
The Community Oncology Centre Trust organised the 3rd Community Oncology Conference marking its 6th founding anniversary at Krishibid Institution Bangladesh in the capital.
The public health campaigners said that cancer treatment was very expensive and families of the patients had to bear the expenses mostly as the government had no dedicated fund for this.
Dhaka University health economics department professor Syed Abdul Hamid said that families of cancer patients expended money in treating cancer ranging from Tk five to 25 lakh each from their pocket.
He said that the family of a cancer patient faced a financial catastrophe as public funding in cancer treatment was very insignificant.
He demanded raising a public fund for cancer treatment so that the families, that are compelled to stop treatment of their patients, could get proper treatment.
He also showed different ways of creating a public fund.
Early screening of cancer can save many lives, the cancer experts said, adding that the deadly disease has gradually been increasing in the country over the years.
They said that early detection of cancer was possible involving the community and engaging people from all walks of life.
Professor Sabera Khatum, founding chairperson of the trust, said that most of the patients, if detected early, would recover, while the death rate was very high among the patients detected late.
Director general of the NGO Affairs Bureau Md Saidur Rahman said that many patients suffered in silence from cancer for the lack of coordination among the agencies.
He said that if the public hospitals provided low cost residences to attendants of the patients, it could be a great support for the patients.
He said that so far 250 non-government organisations were working in the health sector.
He promised to bring them under a common platform to make people aware of early screening of cancer.
The activists said that breast cancer, cervical cancer and oral cancer could be detected at the primary level of infection through screening.
Community Oncology Centre Trust vice-chairman professor Habibullah Talukder Ruskin said that in a study among the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly known as ASEAN, found that 75 per cent of the cancer patients died or faced financial catastrophes within 12 month of detection.
鈥榃e must create awareness among the people for cancer screening in order to prevent this deadly disease,鈥� he said.
Among others, former additional director general of medical education professor Amirul Morshed Khasru, founding trustee and chairperson of the trust, Mosarrat Jahan Sourav, and chief executive officer of the trust, Iqbal Mahmud, spoke at the event.