HERAT CITY (Pajhwok): The number of cancer patients has been increasing in western Herat province, triggering concerns among local residents, while cancer patients ask the government to provide more health facilities in hospitals.
The head of cancerous diseases department in the provincial hospital, Doctor Farooq Ahmad Seddiqi, told Pajhwok Afghan News the number of cancerous illnesses was increasing. He said cancer was curable in early stages.
Without providing figures for last year, Dr. Seddiqi said current figures of cancerous diseases during the past eight months showed the cases were increasing.
The cancerous diseases ward was established in 2019 in the provincial hospital and so far 14,000 patients have been registered while only 3,000 of them admitted to the hospital.
A doctor at the cancerous illness department Dr. Rahmatullah Barakzai says breast cancer is common among patients due to genetic, lactation and inflammation reasons and it is completely curable in early stage.
He urged such patients to visit physicians as soon as possible for their treatment.
However, women who suffer from breast tumors, said the tumors caused pains, but they felt a bit better after vaccination.
One of these patients, Ruqia, told Pajhwok Afghan News that she felt changes in her body six months ago and when she visited the doctor for treatment, she recovered, but the tumor reappeared and it was her second time to get vaccinated and her tumor has enlarged so she needed to come to the hospital again and again.
Another cancer patient from Farsi district of Herat province, BiBi Malalai, said she was suffering from pain and her pain relieved after vaccination. But now she felt lazy and heavy.
Malalai was satisfied with services provided in the hospital, but urged the government to increase facilities to there so that patients were not forced to travel out of the country for treatment.
Cases of some other types of cancer such as throat, prostate and others have increased in the country additional to breast cancer amid concerns expressed by the medical community about lack of treatment and necessary devices to treat tumors.
aw/ma
