Jordan Times
Thursday, March 25, 2005
Plan to promote early cancer diagnosis to be launched next week
By Reem Halasa
AMMAN — The Ministry of Health and the King
Hussein Cancer Centre will launch a plan next week to promote early cancer
diagnosis across the Kingdom, Minister of Health Saeed Darwazeh said.
“It is a high-cost project, and requires installing special equipment in
hospitals and healthcare centres all around the Kingdom,” Darwazeh said on
Wednesday.
In the first phase of the project, testing will be optional for the public, but
after five years it will become compulsory, Darwazeh added.
Over the last six years, the ministry spent JD15,000 annually on cancer
treatment, the minister told the press.
The National Cancer Registry, between (1996-2001), cited lung cancer as the most
common cancer in Jordanian men; standing at around 11.2 per cent. While breast
cancer ranks number one among women, at around 26 per cent.
“But if we compare Jordan's overall cancer cases — 20,000 over the past 5 years
— with other countries, it is clear that the Kingdom is in the normal range,”
said Sameer Khleif, director general of the King Hussein Cancer Centre.
By 2007, Jordan will abide by the European Union's standards regarding the
quality of car fuel, standards that will help in the fight against lung cancer,
Khleif said.
Earlier this year, the ministry designed a 3-year strategy to fight smoking,
which includes imposing a ban on smoking in healthcare centres, hospitals, and
other public areas, and proposing an increase in tobacco taxes, Darwezeh noted.
The minister also commented on the premartial blood test law, which was approved
by the council of ministers early this month.
“The aim of this law is basically to curb the spread of thalassemia in the
country,” he said.
There are already 91 healthcare centres, and 40 laboratories, that can perform
such tests in the Kingdom, Darwazeh said.
“The ministry's responsibility doesn't stop at performing the tests, it also
provides counselling,” he added
Thalassemia is an inherited disease that affects about 4 per cent of the
population, and costs the ministry JD3,000-4,000 each year, the minister said.
There are two types of thalassemia, the first is minor, which means that a
patient is a mere carrier of the disease, but it doesn't affect his life in any
way, the minister explained. But the second type, major thalassemia, requires
periodic blood transfusions and expensive treatment.
“If both parents have minor thalassemia, there is a 25 per cent chance their
child might be born with major thalassemia,” Darwazeh said.