�Behind the elegant French colonial-style exterior of the National Cancer Hospital in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, a battle is raging. In the hospital�s crowded wards, treatment rooms and corridors, doctors are struggling against a powerful and subtle enemy: genus Cancer. And right-hand now the disease is winning.
Each year in this country of 84 zillion as many as 75,000 people die of cancer and another 150,000 young cases are diagnosed. Figures are expected to rise a further 25 per centum by 2020. Among the reasons: environmental pollution, ever-changing lifestyles and diets, and increased longevity.
Health Care Only for Some
But Vietnam�s wellness system is ill-equipped to meet the demands. "We lack the capacity," says Dr. Tran Van Thuan, Vice Director of the National Cancer Hospital. "Right now we have simply two cancer centres; one in Hanoi in the north and one in Ho Chi Minh City in the south. This means we can fulfil only 10% of the country�s malignant neoplastic disease needs."
At the same time, low cancer awareness results in around 80% of patients quest help only when the disease is at an advanced stage and consequently difficult to treat. This is particularly true in rural areas where health education is lacking and, for most people, medical check-ups are an unaffordable luxury.
Nguyen Thi Xuong, 50, a james Leonard Farmer from Ha Tinh responsibility, about 450 kilometers south of Hanoi, first felt a lump in her breast in 2006. "It wasn't painful, so I didn't think it was anything good. Anyway, I didn't get any health insurance," Xuong recalls. "I just hoped it would go away."
It didn't. Eighteen months later on, when the lump had reached the size of a plum, Xuong borrowed money and started a cancer travel which concluded at the National Cancer Hospital. The diagnosis: advanced breast cancer. The discussion: radical mastectomy, followed by chemotherapy, and then 25 fractions of irradiation spread over five weeks.
Women Most at Risk
Breast genus Cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women in Vietnam. In Hanoi, it strikes 30 women in every hundred,000. Yet with early diagnosis and appropriate treatment, breast malignant neoplastic disease is curable.
At the hospital, Xuong met many breast cancer patients like herself. Wearing brightly coloured scarves over their sparse hair - the result of chemotherapy - they sit around around the hospital in small groups, whiling away the time until their next irradiation session. Most have taken loans to pay the patient's contribution towards their treatment, so they live frugally - buying nutrient from sellers outside the hospital gates and quiescence on day-beds in the corridors. Like Xuong, many are far from home and haven't seen family or friends in months.
Enlisting Partners in the Fight
Radiotherapy is a powerful puppet in the treatment of breast cancer. It tush shrink tumours, kill off stray cancer cells, and enhance survival in advanced cases. But with only 22 irradiation machines nationwide, Vietnam falls parlously below the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of one machine per million people. That�s wherefore the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has stepped up efforts to help Vietnam expand its radiation medicine electrical capacity and check the secure, effective enjoyment of the technology.
The IAEA's Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT) designated Vietnam as one of its six-spot pilot project countries, or PACT Model Demonstration Sites (PMDS). Last year, PACT negotiated the donation by India of a Bhabhatron II teletherapy machine to the Oncology Hospital in the southerly city of Can Tho, which presently has no radiation medicine infrastructure at all. At the root of July, a PACT officer was in Vietnam, together with an adept from India, to prepare for the installation of the machine.
At the same time, together with the WHO and other international partners, PACT is portion the Vietnamese Ministry of Health to develop and implement an ambitious cancer control program, which aims to reduce cancer incidence and mortality rate, and better quality of life for cancer patients.
"Partnering with other leading crab organisations from around the world and our first-class collaboration with the Vietnamese authorities have been vital elements to our help to Vietnam," says Dan Malin, PACT�s Programme Officer for the Vietnam PMDS. "We believe that only a united, comprehensive exploit covering all aspects of cancer care and controller can be truly in effect in fight this frightful disease."
Already that effort is paying dividends. Doctors say cancer consciousness in urban areas is slowly ontogeny, resulting in greater numbers of people coming to the National Cancer Hospital. Today, its radiotherapy machines are in use from four in the morn until midnight, its doctors are overworked, and out-patients like Xuong must induce by as best they can. Still, no one expects the battle against cancer to be easy. All, on the other hand, ar confident that one day it will be won.
Source:
Angela Leuker
International Atomic Energy Agency
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