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Child cancer- Our children, our future
In absence of formal figures, it is estimated that yearly between 7.000 and 8.000 children in Bangladesh get diagnosed with cancer. With prompt and effective treatment 80% of these young patients could be cured. Unfortunately only 20% of these children get any access to treatment.
There is an insufficient number of dedicated medical centers and cancer hospitals in Bangladesh. Along with the lacking of treatment facilities, specialist doctors or oncologists trained to deal with child cancer are hard to fine. Especially the poor and people living out of the capital Dhaka, rarely have any access to the chemotherapy that could save their children. All too often, the decease gets misdiagnosed or goes untreated and results in a fatal decease. But this treatment is often too little or too late, as the poor and uneducated parents cannot afford the cost of bringing their children to Dhaka or else do so only in the worst terminal stages of the disease.
In a developing country like Bangladesh, where even primary healthcare is sadly inadequate, cancer treatment may appear to be a lesser priority. But at a time when "The war against terror" has become a global priority, one can ask what about the war against poverty and suffering? Such a war must include the fight for all types of health care to be made available -- especially for our children, who are our future.
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| © All photograph right reserved by Naymuzzaman Prince. |
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