The guarantee was given by the vice-president of the republic, Esperança da Costa, in Luanda, during the “Pink October and Blue November Reflection Meeting”, in which she revealed that the specialization of 67 health professionals in different areas of oncology and psychology to improve the monitoring of cancer patients.
Speaking at the opening of the event, the minister said that, in addition to training health professionals, the Executive will continue with plans to improve the supply of differentiated means of diagnosis and specialized treatment of cancer, the results of which are notable, looking at the ongoing projects for the construction and rehabilitation of infrastructure to support the sector.
Esperança da Costa highlighted the investments that have been made to better care for patients with oncological diseases, such as the emergence of more laboratories, the construction of the Oncological Institute and the reopening of the new operating room, chemotherapy and hospitalization rooms for adults and children at the Angolan Institute for Cancer Control (IACC).
In her intervention, the Vice-President said that Angola recorded 959 new cases of breast cancer and 646 deaths from this disease, between 2020 and 2022, according to a report from the Angolan Institute for Cancer Control.
In the same period, more than 600 men died from prostate cancer and around 4,522 new cases could emerge by 2040, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
“These alarming data show that we need to strengthen the awareness of women and men on the issue of prevention and early diagnosis of breast and prostate cancer, as well as strengthening the training and increasing the skills of our professionals on cancer, which, unfortunately, does not even spare our children”, he warned.
Esperança da Costa launched a challenge to celebrate “Yellow February”, in the coming years, “with noteworthy activities”, in salute to the 4th and 15th of February, World Cancer Day and International Day to Fight Cancer. Childhood Cancer, respectively, similar to what is done with "Pink October and Blue November".
“We can, together, work on this great challenge and our collective and joint action can, without a doubt, build a society with better health, better quality of life and more hope for our populations”, she declared.
