* When we use the word ‘cancer’ in Pakistan,
* it doesn’t mean this disease alone
* but also many other psychological diseases associated with it
* because we all know the kind of impact this word ‘cancer’
* can have on a person living in our society
* There is a reason why cancer is also associated
* with so many other mental illnesses
* But when we discuss Pakistan’s case,
* the situation is extremely critical
* I have done some research on the subject,
* have written about it and intend to write more in future
* According to the data available with us,
* though currently heart diseases cause
* most number of deaths in Pakistan,
* by 2028 if we don’t contain cancer,
* it’ll become the leading cause of deaths in the country
* You can understand how rapidly this disease is spreading
* Some data that I want to share with you says,
* every year over 350,000 new cancer cases are reported
* and it doesn’t include the cases already diagnosed
* Similarly, every year 200,000 Pakistanis die
* due to cancer and 80% of them die
* because they don’t get timely diagnosis
* Then they don’t get proper treatment,
* financial issues arise and then there’s a series of reasons
* why 80 percent of patients don’t get timely treatment
* If we take the data up to 2015
* compiled by a new hospital being made in Lahore,
* and Dr Shehreer is the brain behind it,
* and collaborate this data with Shaukat Khanum’s;
* these are some organizations in Pakistan treating cancer patients
* and also doing research on its spread and how it can be contained;
* this data shows that available facilities in Pakistan
* are disproportionately limited compared with number of patients
* So if I try to sum it all up without going into details,
* Pakistan needs at least 11 new hospitals speicalising in cancer
* so that 350,000 new patients every year can be treated
* Moreover, we also need 7000 new doctors,
* 7000 new beds and 7000 new nurses for this purpose
* Currently we have a total of 12 to 15 hundred beds
* and hardly 250 cancer specialists,
* and nurses specialising in oncology are way too few
* Cancer treatment requires chemotherapy,
* then there’s surgery and final stage is radiotherapy
* So if we talk about radiotherapy, there are only
* five to seven radiation machines operational in Lahore
* In rest of the country, you either have to go to Karachi or Islamabad
* So the plight of cancer patients in Pakistan is alarming
* What we need is to replicate projects like Shaukat Khanum
* so that this rapidly growing disease can be contained
* For, while we start treating the cancer patients,
* a very important aspect is the psychological healing of
* the patient suffering from this disease
* Third and fourth grade patients often fail to get
* proper treatment and they’re often declared untreatable
* We hardly have any palliative care departments in Pakistan
* This department provides care to terminally ill patients
* for whatever life they are left with
* and there are several cases to prove that with proper care
* terminally ill patients can survive for longer periods
* But such a department doesn’t exist in Pakistan
* Then there are certain medicines and injections
* which are extremely expensive
* Government also needs to take steps in this regard
* so that these medicines can become affordable for the patients
* We’ll keep sharing data and findings related to cancer
* in future episodes too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtOfdzCrYds&feature=youtu.be