Will women survive the Cancer era?

By Nokulunga Masuku

The many sufferings brought by cancer have compelled the world to cherry pick the 4th of February 2014 as the World Cancer Day so as to spread responsiveness towards a disease that has claimed so many lives and continues to be a threat to humanity.

The perception that cancer is a disease affecting the wealthy and old people in developed countries has since turned out to be a myth. Cancer has also proven to be a horrendous ordeal to third world countries for both the young and old irrespective of one’s social background.

The turn of the millennium ushered in a new epoch- that of cancer in developing countries that has never been imagined of and women have not been spared. Studies have shown that over 85% of the 275 000 women who die of cervical cancer every year are from developing countries.

Of the 7.6 million global deaths from cancer in 2008, more than 55% occurred in less developed regions of the world. By 2030, 60 to 70% of the estimated 21.4 million new cancer cases per year are predicted to occur in developing countries.

With the provision of sanitary wear always being a struggle for many ordinary Zimbabwean women, the fight against cancer seems to be far from being won. Superlative indeed, a whatsapp message made rounds in a bid to empower and enlighten women and their loved ones on how to prevent cervical cancer.

Part of the message encouraged women to change their sanitary wear after every 5hours, something that really reverberates out of this world given the poverty lines that most people live under.

The message comes at a time when some females do not even afford to part with a dollar for the purchase a single pack of pads and some have succumbed to using newspapers, dried mealie cobs and cow dug for soaking menstrual blood (The Zimbabwean 19.12.12).

The alternatives like cow dug are not in anywow safe as they contain harmful diseases.

If someone is failing to acquire a packet of tens pads, what more of changing the napkins every 5hours? That would require a minimum of three pads a day and at least two packets depending on one’s flow.

Females who use pads also don’t change regularly as per call in the message. Most use only two pads during heavy flows, one during the day and one at night and the reminder of the days they use only one, something that highly exposes them to cancer as prolonged use causes irritation, blood becomes green leading bacteria to grow and get inside the body and the uterus thus causing infections.

Surely, it is a public secret that the lives of women are in danger of cancer.

According to scientists, cancer gets higher with age. It is said that most ovarian cancers develop after menopause and half of all ovarian cancers are found in women who are 65 years of age or older.

Harmful chemicals which convert into gel that causes cancer in the bladder and uterus leading to cancers are contained in pads and tampons and that has compromised the place of women below menopause stage to a great deal as sanitary wear is an obligation though nothing seems to be safe for use during their monthly menstruation.

Moreover, bleaching agents are used to make pads pure therefore, making women more vulnerable to the disease since the skin around the vaginal area is more permeable to a wide range of artificial chemicals.

As poverty has taken its toll in many families, victory against cancer has been in their barest dreams as most people find it hard if not impossible to access treatment to the noxious disease.

Not so long ago, HIV/AIDS was the most dreaded disease but cancer has so far surpassed the latter. What makes matters it worse is that therapy for HIV/AIDS is readily available in the country’s public hospitals for free of charge but with cancer, people have to folk out lump sums of money from their pockets to get treatment that is got mostly out of the country.

The bigger question now is who amongst the women will survive the Cancer era, as nothing seems to be innocuous. Infertile women are at a high risk of having cancer than their fertile counterparts and talcum powder that is used by most women is also a risk.