Mouth cancer spreading among fishermen, children

Mouth cancers are spreading widely in fishermen localities of Karachi due to chew of the Gutka, a local made, a form of tobacco, consists of betel nuts, lime water, opium, different kinds of tobacco, flavour of sweetener, and peppermint, etc.
A large number of fishermen and their children died after suffering from month cancers. "My best friend, 37 years old, Noor Muhammad, died of mouth cancer. He used to chew the Gutka. The doctor diagnosed a mouth cancer," said Abdul Samad, a native of Mubarak Village.
He said that when the local doctor diagnosed it and asked him to approach the cancer ward in Jinnah Hospital. "But we reached there very late. The doctor told us, patient could not survive because the disease is in last stage but we tried our best," Samad said.
The coastal areas of the Karachi including Mubarak Village, Ibrahim Haidrey, Rehri Goth, Mauripur, Shamspir, Kaka Village, Abdul Rehman Goth, Singo Goth, Mohaib Ali Goth, Deh Mann, Deh Mendiyari and Deh Allah Bano, where not only children or men but a large number of women also chew the Gutka. About 80 percent people of the coastal villages are reported, addicted of "Gutka", due to which, according to local doctor of Mauripur, Dr Faqir Muhammad, many mouth diseases like Submucus, Fibrosis, Squamous cell carcinoma, Mouth and tongue ulcer, Peptic ulcer are spreading widely in these areas.
"I am very habitual of it now, if I don't take it, I can't work, can't see movies, and can't move in order. I feel like vomiting without Gutka now," said Bashir Baloch, 26 years old, an addict of Mubarak Village," I started to chew it when I was 12 years old. Today it is the best gift we can offer to our friends."
He said that many students take Gutka, when they prepare for their examination. Many factory and mill workers don't go to their work without it, he added.
"Its use is common in fishing communities along the Karachi coastal belt. It is generally seen that men and women in coastal villages sleep, putting Gutka along with their pillow. They also take it early morning before brushing," said Dr Faqir a local practitioner.
He said that several mouth cancers were increasing the coastal villages due to Gutka. The authorities concern should take action against selling of the Gutka in the coastal areas, he suggested.
A recent survey of these areas shows that the affected people, mostly fishermen, who complained of mouth cancer as common diseases, are the residents of those villages where basic healthcare facilities are not available.
There are three dispensaries meant for the residents of Hussaini Goth, Mubarak Village and Deh Allah Bano but all of them have been lying closed for years.
The Mubarak Village dispensary was established about 10 years ago but the provincial health department could not appoint a doctor or paramedic for the facility till date.
The healthcare issues and deaths, more painfully, go unnoticed and unreported, mainly due to successive governments' apathy towards the plight of the poor lot.
Although nearly all of these are decades-old villages, the authorities concerned are yet to come up with a comprehensive plan that could provide the fishermen population with proper health facilities of the villages.