Story By: Maj. Dr. Carl Nutsugah
No alcohol, No Shisha, no smoking. The Otolaryngology Society of Ghana, that comprises all ENT allied health personnel today in Accra celebrated the world Head and neck cancer day. The theme is : Awareness of risk factors for head and neck cancers; Catch them young .
ENT surgeons, ENT nurse specialists and Radio oncologists targeted young adults to attempt exposing them to detailed information about head and neck cancers. The target group was chosen so as to “catch them young” when it comes to head and neck cancers.
The health professionals identified alcohol, smoking tobacco, smoking shisha and even oral sex as very strong risk factors. They also spoke about symptoms including non-healing mouth ulcers, constant nasal congestion, profuse unprovoked bleeding from the nose and unintended weight loss. Also they added that some important symptoms included pain during swallowing, inability to swallow and change in voice are of concern.
They admonished the students to spread the word to their cohorts and families so as to help identify these cancers early enough to be tackled.
A day earlier , Dr Estella Bilson-Amoah, an ENT Specialist in KBTH, was on the UTV morning show to throw more light on the signifance of the day and educated viewers on head and neck cancer. Her main concern was early detection of these cancers so as to offer Health professionals enough room to mitigate the debilitating effects of head and neck cancers.
KBTH sees hundreds of head and neck cancers in Accra but unfortunately because of the late presentations, there is always dwindling outcomes after all is done possible.
World head and neck cancer day has come to stay in Ghana. It is an avenue health professionals hope to use to throw more light on more and more cancer cases been seen at the hospitals.
