Dubai UAE
Sallam Sallam
In conjunction with the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Ministry of Health and Prevention, MoHAP has launched its annual breast cancer awareness campaign to raise the importance of early detection in breast cancer, highlight the factors associated with the increased risk of breast cancer, educate women on how to conduct the breast self-exam, and to reiterate the importance of breastfeeding in the prevention.
The campaign also aims to enhance the culture of how women who have breast cancer can deal with it, in addition to offering them the palliative care since the moral and emotional support has proven to be instrumental in a woman’s healing process.
National Breast Cancer Early Screening Program
“The events held throughout October aim to achieve the objectives of the National Breast Cancer Early Screening Program in line with MoHAP’s strategy to promote healthy lifestyles and deliver comprehensive and integrated healthcare services in innovative and sustainable ways and to improve the outcomes of the national indicator reduce cancer mortalities which is one of the goals of the National Agenda of the UAE Vision 2021,” said HE Dr. Hussein Abdel Rahman Al-Rand, Undersecretary of the Ministry’s Health Assistant Sector, Health Centers, and Clinics, “All the precautionary and preventive measures have been taken into account to maintain the health and safety of everyone and to provide a healthy environment that encourages women to visit health centers to conduct a mammogram exam and get them acquainted with the regular breast self-exam, where early screening has proven to increase chances of survival by 95%.”
Dr. Fadila Mohamed Sherif, Director of MoHAP’s Health Education & Promotion Department, said: “The campaign includes several virtual awareness activities, such as publishing educational posts on MoHAP’s social media accounts and screening educational videos in shopping centers and government institutions to encourage women to undergo early screening of breast cancer and to motivate them to adopt healthy lifestyles to prevent cancer and to create an educated society aware of the risks of disease and ways to prevent it.”
In addition, the health education departments of the medical districts organize a number of activities, events and virtual educational programs that urge community members to conduct breast cancer screening. This included the implementation of virtual awareness lectures for some government and private agencies and community institutions throughout October.
Dr. Esmat Al Qassim, Head of Maternal and Child Health Department, said: “MoHAP has taken a set of precautionary measures to prevent the COVID-19 infection at all the health centers that offer breast cancer screening. This included an on-phone booking service, with 24-hour in-advance confirmation of the appointment to avoid overcrowding and temperature check prior to starting the test.
Other procedures include advising women to visit health centers without an escort, providing mammogram results over the phone and by email, without the need to hand it over in person. All devices are sterilized after the completion of each examination, with the implementation of health and safety precautions and rules.
