Breast Cancer Awareness

Introduction

Breast cancer is one type of cancer that affects millions of women all over the world and is an illness not segregated by socio-economic status. That said, breast cancer is not a uniformly distributed disease; women in underdeveloped and developing countries experience great difficulty in early detection, adequate treatment, and prevention of breast cancer. These areas have poor breast cancer awareness, which makes diagnosis late; treatment scarce; and disease management generally unsatisfactory, thus increasing mortality. The discussions in this article aim to highlight some of the problems of breast cancer awareness in underdeveloped countries, the factors that lead to such conditions, and the measures that should be taken to solve this important health problem.

Reasons why there is low awareness of breast cancer among women

Many challenges underdeveloping countries experience when it comes to breast cancer awareness campaigns. Some of the key factors contributing to the lack of awareness include:

Healthcare information is blocked to the extent

Firstly, underdeveloping countries have poor healthcare centers, and hence there is a deficiency of proper information relating to breast cancer that gets to the public domain. Such a scarcity in the availability of healthcare services is the following: This can lead to less information on the signs, causes, and ways to prevent breast cancer, hence the poor knowledge and identification of signs of the disease by women from those areas.

Cultural and social barriers

Lack of awareness about breast cancer is also evident in underdeveloping nations because of certain cultural and social barriers. Breast cancer awareness and knowledge about the illness remain very low in countless areas because speaking about this disease is seen as shameful in many countries. This culture fails to treat breast cancer as a topic that can be freely discussed, thereby hindering the dissemination of information on the illness and its effects on women.

Economic constraints

Breast cancer awareness campaigns may be difficult to execute in underdeveloping countries, mainly because these countries may have scarce financial resources to base their awareness campaigns on. Health education programs often receive little financial support. Even after campaigns are initiated, the message may never get to the target group, or the effects might be short-lived because little is spent on constant reminders.

Breast cancer diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties

Ignorance of breast cancer in underdeveloping nations also plays a part as to why an accurate diagnosis and treatment proves to be a feat in the list. Some of the key issues faced by women in these regions include:

Late diagnosis

If the woman does not know about the symptoms and signs of breast cancer, she may not go for treatment until breast cancer has reached some certain stage. A delay in the diagnosis leads to worsening since more harm is likely to occur than good once the disease is treated.

Rarely access the facilities for screening services

Most underdeveloped countries have poor facilities, and even if women can afford tests such as mammograms, there are no facilities to carry out these tests. Such a shortage of screening facilities can be one of the reasons for late diagnosis and poor outcomes in women with breast cancer.

Lack of treatment

Underdeveloping countries are faced with limited treatment options for breast cancer among women who seek treatment. They may not be able to access chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery in their local healthcare setting, or else the cost of these treatments may be utterly prohibitive. Such situations that do not provide access to treatment result in poor health and high mortality rates.

Chance to enhance knowledge of breast cancer

Despite the challenges, there are several opportunities to improve breast cancer awareness in underdeveloping countries, including:

Early childhood education programs

This way, healthcare professionals could deliver different levels of knowledge about breast cancer to women and their families through direct interaction with the communities. Screening activities like lectures, seminars, or screening events help make women in society aware of the changes they should look out for, which will encourage them to go for a check-up.

NGOs and international organizations

NGOs and international organizations are critical in spreading knowledge about breast cancer in underdeveloped countries. When NGOs partner with local healthcare organizations, they can support funding activities such as creating awareness, training healthcare practitioners, and developing screening centers in areas with few or no facilities.

Applying information technologies to address the larger public

But technology has the feature of raising awareness of breast cancer in the underdeveloping countries. In the world of social networks and instant messengers, mobile applications, and popular educational websites, it will be possible for healthcare providers to share necessary information about the disease with many people.

Advocating for policy changes

It was therefore suggested that underdeveloping countries should incorporate breast cancer into their health strategic plan as a major health agenda. Through education and lobbying for changes in the policy on breast cancer screening and treatment, lives will be saved through increased access to quality care.