The Ga East Municipal Hospital has urged Ghanaians to pay attention to the upsurge of breast cancers cases in the country.

Speaking at the launch of the 2021 Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Head of Nursing and Midwifery at the Ga East Municipal Hospital, Mavis Apatu, said many women continue to visit healthcare facilities with advanced breast cancer cases.

She revealed that the disease accounted for more than 1,871 deaths out of 4,645 women diagnosed with breast cancer each year, a situation she described as alarming.

This early screening and detection, she emphasized, is to ensure that they can identify it to provide them with the specialised care they need for better outcomes.

She said creating awareness in rural communities can reduce the number of breast cancer cases recorded.

“I will say that they lack information; the information abounds in the urban areas but is limited in the rural areas."

"So if you go to the villages, they lack information, some people feel it’s the work of witchcraft, and some also feel it is not normal to go to the hospital to be checked, and the attitude of it can never be me contributes to the cause.”

Non-Communicable Disease Control Program Manager of Ghana Health Service, Efua Commeh, indicated that male breast cancer is rare cancer that forms in the breast tissue of men.

Though breast cancer is most commonly thought of as a disease that affects women, breast cancer does occur in men.

“Almost one per cent of all the cases of breast cancers that we get occur in men. But, unfortunately, for this one per cent that we get, most of them come when it’s too late because traditionally, we don’t associate breast cancer with men.

"It is important that men know their normal breast so that when any changes start occurring within the breast, they can immediately report,” she advised.