Urgent appeal for women to seek testing

The Bahrain Cancer Society (BCS) has issued an urgent call for women to come forward to be screened for breast cancer. 

Bahrain’s nationwide breast cancer screening campaign launched in March 2006 has fallen drastically short of targets because awareness about the programme and breast cancer in general remains low.
Mammography machines worth thousands of dinars are standing idle in health centres across the country.
“We are urging the ladies to come forward,” said president of the BCS, Dr Abdulrahman Fakhro.
“We’ve sent out over 52,000 letters inviting women over the age of 40 to have a breast screening but so far only 12,000 have responded.”
BCS had expected at least 80 per cent of the women targeted by the campaign to have been screened by now.
The screening initiative spear-headed by the BCS in co-operation with the health and information ministries was the first of its kind in the Gulf.
It was also ahead of countries like the UK and Australia where women are only invited for screening in their 50s.
Mammography machines were installed at Hamad Kanoo, Naim, National Bank of Bahrain, A’ali and Mohammed Jassim Kanoo health centres.
The Health Ministry also employed a number of mammogram technicians to operate the machines.
At the launch of the campaign Health Minister Dr Nada Haffadh said: “On average we are expecting 20 women every day at each health centre.”
However, numbers have been much lower.
Publicity to advertise the campaign included lectures and a poster campaign and each mammography invitation was accompanied by an information brochure.
But Dr Fakhro said it wasn’t enough.
He said that he was disappointed with the level of response and believes the Ministry of Information could have done more to promote the campaign.
A spokesperson at the BCS said that cultural reasons may also have played a part in the low number of women who have taken advantage of the screenings: “It’s against what they’ve been taught; they are shy and scared to show their breasts.
“They don’t know what a mammography is; some women think it will be painful.
“We put posters all over the country, on buses, on the streets, everywhere, but we didn’t use TV and radio.
“The Ministry of Health has renewed the campaign for two more years and we need better advertising, especially ads on the TV and radio.”
In Bahrain 80 cases of breast cancer are detected every year.
Mammography helps to detect breast cancer early on.
At the launch of the campaign, Dr Haffadh said: “Through early detection the percentage of recovery reaches 95 per cent, and this helps to reduce the number of deaths from breast cancer at a rate of 30 per cent.
“By attending regular mammogram invitations we can detect breast cancer at a rate of 95 per cent.
“I call on all women who have reached 40 or above to actively take part and benefit from the service for a better life.”
● One in eight people would develop breast cancer during their lifetime.
● A women’s chances of breast cancer increases with age.

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By -RdS-
editor@gulfweekly.com