‘50% children with cancer are out of medical services’

BHARATPUR: Pediatric oncologist Krishna Sagar Poudel of BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital in Chitwan has shared that of the total cases, more than 50 percent children with cancer disease are still out of hospital’s access.

“More than 1,500 children in the country are estimated to have been diagnosed with cancer every year. But, only 50 percent of the estimates visit the hospitals. And, some 400 children with cancer visit the BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital,” he stated.

Dr Poudel said so at a programme organised at the hospital on Thursday to distribute stationeries to the children with cancer.

On the occasion, he stated that 60 percent of the childhood cancer cases visiting the BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital for treatment are cured.

He added that only 30 percent of the childhood cancer is cured in Nepal but it could be increased up to 80 percent given that the number of beds in the hospitals are increased and accessible treatment services are expanded.

The event was organised also to raise the parents on the occasion of the International Childhood Cancer Day.

The WHO has also enlisted Nepal in its focus in the global campaign against childhood cancer.

In Nepal, the government has ensured several services for free for the treatment of childhood cancer.