The Ga Central Municipal Director of Education, Madam Winifred Aku Gbadago, has cautioned parents to avoid lifestyles likely to expose their children to the early childhood cancer.
She mentioned some of the common causes as drinking contaminated water, smoking , exposure to too much sunshine and pregnant women exposed to x-ray that affects babies and eating too much fatty foods.
She said some children ate a lot of fatty foods, becoming obese which may be predisposed to cancer.
Madam Gbadago noted that once the symptoms or signs of cancer shows up, for example severe headaches, white spots seen on the eyes, vomiting , these conditions should be reported to the health facilities for early treatment as any delay would worsen the situation.
She gave the caution during an overview of Childhood Cancer of a Community Intervention Programme organised by Brain Birds Academy, a Basic School at Israel, near Lapaz in Accra yesterday.
Speaking at the function, Madam Gbadago noted that, “since knowledge is power and once we have knowledge about cancer from health personnel, the public should do well to prevent the deadly disease.”
She said if healthy lifestyles were adopted by adults, deadly diseases such as cancer could be avoided, so that people can live longer.
According to her, many people had lost their lives because of lack of knowledge about diseases including cancer.
The Municipal Director of Education emphasised that the issue of cancer had become serious, resulting in about 30 out of 100 deaths in the world.
Madam Gbadago also stated that if the disease affected pupils, they would be unable to learn properly and pass their examinations, therefore, parents and teachers should be on alert and promptly report to health authorities and also support children who may become victims.
The Director said pupils and students were effective agents of dissemination of information and also advocates of valuable information to others such as their peers and Sunday school mates.
Adding if sensitised early, they should do well to spread the information of cancer to many others in order to save lives.
BY BERNARD QUANSON
