The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the world for slightly over a year to date.
The situation in Malaysia does not appear to be abating with 238,721 cases and 857 deaths on Feb 6, compared to 115,078 cases and 474 deaths on Jan 1.
The healthcare system is straining to cope with this unprecedented challenge.
There are global reports that cancer care, like other non-Covid-19 conditions, is being deprioritised, delayed, disrupted, and even discontinued by some health systems.
These decisions will impact on cancer death and burden health systems for years to come with delays in cancer screening resulting in delayed diagnosis and worse outcomes for the affected patients.
(From left) Donmayne Gyles, vice president of Finance at Andrews Memorial Hospital
(AMH); Carol Morgan, vice president of Nursing at AMH; and Dr Jason Copeland, breast
cancer surgical oncologist pose for pictures at the opening of the Breast, Health and
Oncology Care Centre at the hospital on Thursday, February 4, which was observed as
World Cancer Day.
With the number of cases and death rates resulting from breast cancer reportedly on the rise in Jamaica, a new privately-owned facility dedicated to the prevention, treatment and recuperation from the disease was opened in Kingston on Thursday, as the world observed World Cancer Day.
PETALING JAYA: The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a boon in telehealth services and adoption of healthier lifestyles among Malaysians in the fight against cancer, says the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia (AMM).
“Cancer care did not receive the same level of attention in the past as was the case in many countries during the pandemic.
“However, Covid-19 has had some positive impact on our healthcare system, ” AMM said in a statement issued in conjunction with World Cancer Day 2021 yesterday.
The academy noted the pandemic had accelerated the use of telehealth services for patients, including those with cancer, which helped bridge the access gap for the less mobile or those in rural areas.
The numbers highlight the importance of early detection, researchers said.
The report, called Global Cancer Statistics 2020, was written by the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and used data from the latter s Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN). The organizations found that there were 19.3 million new cancer cases in 2020; of these, 2.3 million (11.7%) were female breast cancer.
The incident rate of cancer is tied to socioeconomic factors, noted a team led by Hyuna Sung, PhD, principal scientist at the ACS, with women in transitioning countries (i.e., those shifting from a centrally planned economy to a free market structure) experiencing increases in incidence compared with their already-transitioned counterparts.