President Arif Alvi urges for improved breast cancer screening facilities

 

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday stressing on a comprehensive community-based health education programme to raise awareness about breast cancer said that one woman dies every 15 minutes of the disease.

Chairing a briefing on breast cancer awareness by the Secretary National Health Services here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, the president said women in the country should be provided facilities including screening, sessions on self-examination along with the clinical examination and free screening mammography under one roof.

President Alvi appreciated the Federal Breast Cancer Screening Centre (FBCSC) at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for initiating free screening mammography that helped detection of a large number of breast cancer cases at early stages.

He assured full support to FBCSC for establishing a breast cancer screening setup, at par with rest of the world in order to reduce the cases and appreciated the efforts for controlling the incidence of this disease in the country.

He was briefed on the mapping of the mammography facilities in the country in order to utilize them for breast cancer screening.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health, Dr Zafar Mirza, and representatives from Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital, Lahore, Shifa International Hospital, Pink Ribbon, Green Star, World Health Organization, and UNICEF were also present on the occasion.