2023-09-27 16:52:56
The Panamanian occupational health specialist Sally Vergara has told EFE that Panama is experiencing an emergency situation regarding cancer that requires action aimed at bringing to reality the plans that already exist to confront this disease, from the field of prevention. to palliative care and through research.
Panamanian occupational health specialist Sally Vergara. EFE/Eliecer Aizprúa
One of the expressions that confirm this is that the first cause of death in women in Panama is breast cancer and the second is cervical cancer, stressed Vergara, who has worked for 20 years at the National Oncology Institute (ION). located in the capital of Panama and which is the only facility of its type in this country.
The impact of covid
Panamanian occupational health specialist Sally Vergara speaks with EFE during the forum “Towards a cure for breast cancer, in equity, innovation and public policy”, organized by the UN, Roche, the National Association against Cancer (ANCEC) of Panama and the City of Knowledge in Panama City (Panama).
The coronavirus pandemic caused many patients to suspend their treatments and stop making diagnoses, “which is the key in cancer matters.”
After covid, “the situation has become quite complicated (…) we have an increase in the numbers of new cases that are arriving every day at the National Cancer Institute,” said Vergara.
“Now we have an emergency and we have many needs to cover,” added the specialist who is also a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association against Cancer (ANCEC) of Panama, an NGO operating since 1970 that, together with Roche, with which EFE maintains a content dissemination agreement, the United Nations and the City of Knowledge organized the forum “Towards a cure for breast cancer, in equity, innovation and public policy.”
Apply plans against cancer in Panama
Panama “has made a lot of progress” in terms of educational and cancer prevention campaigns, it has developed guides and also a cancer plan and a palliative care plan, but as Vergara assures, “all of that is on paper. “It needs to be brought to reality.”
The question is “when are we going to do it,” said the expert, who pointed to the “lack of political will, of commitment” of the authorities to advance, with guaranteed budgets, effectively in the cure of cancer, understood as a process which begins with prevention through timely diagnosis.
«We all know that oncology must be decentralized. What does that mean? Well, people don’t have to go to the ION to get their treatment. But it also means that the person does not have to go to a provincial capital to get a diagnosis, because primary care must be done in their community, where there should be a mammogram, which is not available in all places and, when there is, it is damaged. “, he claimed.
Breast cancer in Panama
According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2020 in Panama, 299 women died from breast cancer and 1,076 new cases were diagnosed. The incidence and mortality from this disease is increasing by 2% annually.
Only 15% of women in Panama are diagnosed in stage I, in which the cancer is localized and has not invaded other organs. Being in more advanced stages, treatment is more expensive and its success is difficult.
In developed countries, Vergara explained, there is breast cancer “but if you look at the statistics it is not the first cause of death, there is lung cancer, colon cancer. That is not our reality.”
The forum “Towards a cure for breast cancer, in equity, innovation and public policy” was organized with the aim of generating a commitment between the different actors in society to accelerate early diagnosis, and promote protocols and financing for the comprehensive treatment in early stages that brings women closer to a cure.
That is why the organizers called to “prioritize breast cancer in public health policy, since the late diagnosis of this disease represents an alarming economic and social burden on the life of women, their families, in society, in the development of the country and in the health system.
Panamanian occupational health specialist Sally Vergara.EFE/Eliecer Aizprúa
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