ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday stressed the need to disseminate the awareness message about breast cancer to every house across the country to ensure early detection of the disease and reduce the mortality rate.

He said Pakistan had successfully handled the polio disease and this experience also helped the government handle Covid-19 later on. Now, he said, the country was also driving the breast cancer awareness campaign very effectively.

Addressing a breast cancer awareness programme, the president said awareness about other key health issues, including mental health, stunting and women health, should also be raised along with the breast cancer awareness campaign as it was very important to keep woman healthy for a healthy nation.

Highlighting the family system, he said a woman was the key member of a family that must be kept healthy, financially empowered and also safe from any kind of harassment in society.

He said empowering women economically was linked with the overall economic growth of the country.

The president said in Pakistan 24pc of total population was suffering from mental disease that was due to a number of reasons, including financial issues.

He also stressed the need to control population by increasing the access of people to long-term contraceptive products as it was key to development of the country both in terms of health and economy.

Citing China’s example, the president said the country’s rapid development was due to its special focus on health and education.

He maintained that due to lack of resources, prevention should be focused to avoid chronic disease at a later stage.

First lady Begum Samina Alvi urged women to learn how to make self-detection to ensure timely diagnose of the disease.

“Women should make a habit of self-examination to minimise the death rate.”

Appreciating the role of media in success of the campaign, she said the media should continue its role in raising awareness about the disease.

She said she initiated the breast cancer awareness campaign five years ago and now the topic that was considered a matter of discomfort and taboo to discuss was being discussed at every level.

Ms Alvi said taboos and myths about the disease were now being broken and people were freely discussing about breast cancer at every forum.

Caretaker Minister for Health Dr Nadeem Jan said the government needed to increase the health budget up to 4pc of GDP that was currently only 1pc of the GDP.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2023