Oncologist Advocates Insurance For Children With Cancer

A Clinical Oncologist, Dr. Adedayo Joseph, has called for a structured insurance system that will take care of the cost of treating children with cancer.

Her call came against the backdrop of the fact that it costs between N3 million and N4 million to treat a child with cancer.

Adebayo, who spoke in Lagos, also lamented poor awareness on childhood cancer, adding that cancer in children, if detected early, can be cured.

Meanwhile, Dorcas Cancer Foundation is launching a Childhood Cancer Handbook to give basic information about cancer in children.

Lamenting that enough attention had not been given to cancer that affects children, Adebayo, who is also the Founder of Dorcas Cancer Foundation, called for more awareness on childhood cancer.

On the Childhood Cancer Handbook billed for launch this week, she said it was designed specifically for three major group of persons— the parents, medical doctors and other Nigerians curious about childhood cancer.

She added that “the most common type of cancer in children is leukaemia, which is the cancer of the blood. “When a child falls ill all the time, is pale, has frequent infections and illnesses, bruising easily and the bruises do not stop; those are some of the symptoms you find in leukaemia.

“Another symptom is the discolouration of the eye. That is, the dark part of the eye turns white, especially in a photograph; the child has abdominal pains, child falls down, has a brain tumour. “Headache is usually a symptom in children.”