Alarming situation
The Himalayan Times
15
June 2016
Alarming situation
The number of cancer patients is alarmingly
increasing in the country in the last five/six years. The main reasons behind
this are the unhealthy living style, the higher level of pollution and
consumption of adulterated foods among others. There is no proper quality
control mechanism with the government which has made the consumers compelled to
consume the contaminated bottled and piped water and adulterated foods putting
their lives at high risk of getting infected with deadly diseases such as
cancer, high blood pressure, hepatitis, cardiac arrest, liver dysfunction, etc.
It has been reported that more than 300
cancer patients from all over the country normally visit Bhaktapur Cancer
Hospital every year, of which, ten percent come from the valley “Most cancer
patients from the Kathmandu Valley” (THT, 14 June, Page 2) which may not be even
the exact number of patients because there are also other cancer hospitals in
the valley which might be seeing a considerable number of cancer patients. It
is said that this is a silent killer disease which is normally become active
only after it gets fully matured. If it can be detected at the initial stage,
it can be cured say the oncologists.
Once, the patient is diagnosed with cancer,
a series of time consuming and very expensive treatment is required to fight
it. It will be definitely painful to bear for the people who cannot afford
treatment. In this case, the government should take the responsibility in one
way or the other to bear the cost of the treatment like it has officially
started bearing the dialysis expenses of the kidney patients. Also, the
government should be serious in strengthening its quality control mechanism to
sternly put it in place, make it active and start punishing the traders involved
in food adulteration. It is high time that the government and its concerned
agencies took necessary steps to improve air quality inside the Kathmandu valley at the soonest possible.
Rai Biren Bangdel
Maharajgunj.
http://epaper.thehimalayantimes.com/Details.aspx?id=9959&boxid=3522383&dat=6/15/2016
