Health and public awareness

Yesterday I was asked to write an article on a woman’s perspective on cancer, specifically breast and cervical cancer. This got me thinking; how much about this disease is known in the local communities and if these communities knew about the free services offered at the Ministry of Health. I would love to believe the Bureau of Public Health is doing a great job in involving the community in its health fairs and informing the public about this disease, its causes, risk factors, and treatments. After all, we have all seen the many t-shirts promoting “Early Detection, is your best protection”, the towels with “Extending Hope” and let us not forget the yellow bracelets, famous cyclist, Lance Armstrong promotes with the “Livestrong” message on them. Right? Yes, it would be easy to believe the message is being heard, considering the existence of these many promotional items out there. If this is true, WHY is cancer still the leading cause of death in the Republic? Isn’t the message being heard? Should the Bureau of Public Health hold more health fairs or print more promotional items? How many more people have to die before we, as a community, an island, a nation take this deadly illness seriously?

I’ve heard older people say, “I don’t want to know if I have cancer!”, “I’ve lived this long, I should be okay.” But my all time favorite is “I just don’t have the time to get screened” This is true; most people often put things off until the last possible minute. We enjoy procrastinating. We often think of screening as a nuisance, a bother into our already hectic schedules. We feel “fine”, “we are not sick, those folks at the ministry of health waste their time trying to get us in the hospital, don’t they know we live in honto and don’t have transportation to Koror? Don’t they know we have to make a living?” These are the kinds of stereotypes we need to address. As a community, we need to understand that it is OUR health. The health of an individual contributes to the health of the community as a whole and thus to our small island home. The Bureau of Public Health works hard in extending its FREE services to the outlying states. A small team, usually a doctor, a nurse, a laboratory technician and administrative staff, visit the Community Health Centers in the various states and provide breast & cervical cancer screening for women eighteen years old and older, and screen men over the age of forty-five for prostate cancer. The team works late into the night, and early the next morning to offer this service to these communities who often lack the transportation to come into Koror. These people bring the service to OUR community; all we have to do is show up. We can’t wait until we are severely ill and then run to the hospital looking for a cure. It just doesn’t work that way! The hospital staff cannot perform miracles. It is OUR health, and OUR responsibility to get our annual check-up done. Cancer DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE, whether you are male, female, eighty years old or eight years old. When cancer hits you, not many options are in your favor. Hence, “EARLY DETECTION IS STILL YOUR BEST PROTECTION” against any type of cancer. We don’t know what causes it, and there certainly isn’t a cure for it, all we can do now is take advantage of the free services offered at the Ministry of Health.

By Melinda Lawrence