As a result of government’s screening programmes, over 2000 cases of cervical cancer and more than 200 cases of prostate cancer were detected last year.
This was disclosed by President Dr Irfaan Ali during a live broadcast on Thursday.
He noted that a total of 13,688 men were able to complete Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) tests in 2024, of which 536 had to conduct biopsies. Of those, 38% tested positive for cancer.
Meanwhile, 12,000 women between the ages 21 to 65 years received screening for cervical cancer. Of the women screened, 17% tested positive.
President Ali noted that these screening programmes are part of the government’s efforts to build a world-class healthcare system.
From these screening initiatives, the Head of State noted that the government can now have a better data-driven approach to investments in the sector.
Meanwhile, referring to cervical cancer, the President encouraged more persons to get tested. “This is a cancer that can be treated with early detection and that is what we have done, we have invested and give every woman the opportunity to have early detection and have the vaccine to prevent the cancer,” he said.
Recently, the Presidential Commission on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), noted in a press release the significant increase in services for cancer at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) with an average of more than 50 new patients each month. At the end of 2024, the press release disclosed, the GPHC had 500 patients on active chemotherapy, in addition to medicines, treatment and care include psycho-social support.
To tackle this disease at a young age, the Ministry of Health is administering HPV vaccines to young females.
Being able to reduce the prevalence of NCDs the President said, “also reduces public health expenditure in the long term.”
He noted that works are ongoing with Mount Sinai to roll out other tests that are applicable so that public health expenditure can be more aligned to these statistics.
“We want a healthy population,” the President noted.
He outlined other strides taken to meet this goal including the introduction of eye care vouchers, construction of 25 new health centres. Commencing work on digitisation of healthcare system, establishing telemedicine sites in the hinterland, working to improve emergency and diagnostic healthcare with the construction of centres across the country and training more health professionals.
Additionally, in the 2025 National Budget, the government introduced a $10,000 Universal Healthcare voucher to citizens for basic medical tests aimed at establishing baseline health data on NCDs.
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