Prevention better than cure

Jordan takes pride in its advanced medical facilities that offer enviable healthcare, but the King Hussein Cancer Centre stands out as something special.

Founded in 1997, the centre provides treatment to both adult and paediatric cancer patients, whose numbers swell at an alarming over 3,500 new cases every year.

The centre aims to reduce morbidity and mortality rates among patients, with impressive results.

Its professionals focus on prevention, early detection, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care, and it has gained the reputation of being among the best, if not the best, cancer treating medical facility in the Middle East, a status due, in part, to its holistic approach to cancer prevention and treatment that includes informing people how to improve their lifestyles and undergo periodic screening.

The methodology the centre uses has positive and impressive elements, but seeing that the rates of cancer cases are not abating, maybe more needs to be done to try to prevent the disease, when possible.

The centre has admirable awareness campaigns, but it should not be the only entity working on this aspect. As is, it has too much on its plate.

Countrywide, the Ministry of Health, schools, the media, NGOs and even big corporations should work on sustained campaigns to raise awareness about cancer and its causes, besides the periodic anti-smoking movement, which has remained largely ineffective, or the occasional breast-screening campaigns.

The known causes of cancer are many, and the figures show that it is a growing health menace.

This suggests that not enough is being done to stem the growing rates of cancer in the country.

The recent talk about vegetables and fruit with unacceptable amounts of traces of pesticides, which citizens are eating, should be a moment to be seized. Both to stir healthy talk by professionals about the perceived danger — or maybe to allay unjustified fears — and to spur into action the authorities responsible for the use of pesticides and check illegal use of these substances.

The campaign against smoking, on the other hand, is not getting anywhere and smoking in public places is still seen, quite often.

If anything, cafés where hubble bubble is smoked by both genders of all ages seem to have proliferated, obviously a very lucrative, if very harmful, business.

Water in plastic containers can still be seen piled up on sidewalks by some stores, despite the proclaimed danger posed by exposure to sun.

Lifestyle, in general, needs to be targeted, by the centre campaigns, but also by many others, highlighting the risk posed to health by the consumption of certain foods, including the kind high in sugar and fat content.

Environmental experts would warn against pollution, including the noxious vehicle emissions and radiation from Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant, located close to Jordan’s border, yet such issues are rarely the focus of healthy public debates that would either incriminate or put things to rest.

Medical care in Jordan is indeed often exemplary, but wouldn’t it be less costly, in every aspect, to prevent diseases, rather than attempt to cure them?