KARACHI CHRONICLE: The cancer no one talks about

Diseases are a popular topic of conversation, but no one ever talks about prostate cancer. I do not know if men who have the disease ever mention it even to their close, male friends, but they definitely do not openly discuss it. One can sympathise with the patient and understand his inhibition, but what is the reason for the thundering silence of doctors, health workers, journalists and the Ministry of Health?
The public should be informed about symptoms or indications of possible prostate cancer; about treatment, about medication if any exist; what doctor to visit; and, since the disease causes deep distress in the patient, the family should know how to handle the stress. Funds are another important issue, so we should know if there are hospices for terminal prostate cancer, welfare organisations that will share the burden of expenses etc.
Ignorance can be a killer. Medical history is full of tragic tales of deaths that could have been avoided if only people knew something about a disease. Piles or bawasir in Urdu, was one such disease that killed many sufferers simply because the subject was an embarrassment and therefore the patient suffered in secret and usually died. Some lowly caste of Hindus believed smallpox was a manifestation of the goddess Kali. In fact the disease was called Kalimata or just mata. Instead of isolation, the patient was taken to the temple to be blessed. No wonder everytime there was an outbreak of smallpox it spread fast infecting and killing thousands. Today in Pakistan almost all diseases are talked about, including many kinds of cancer. Prostate cancer is the last frontier of public ignorance.
I blame the medical profession of keeping the public in the dark about prostate cancer. My business is communication, but despite effort to get information to share with the public I am confronted by a blank wall. A colleague and good friend who had what he called a prevent treatment against prostate cancer refused to give an interview. I pleaded that the public needed to know, but he would not speak up. All he told me is that the doctor had scratched out the prostate gland. In my work I have come across two other frustrating attempts to collect information suitable for public consumption. One was breast cancer, the other vasectomy. Medical information I found, but I wanted the human angle: how did people feel when they discovered a cancer or determined to have a casectomy operation? What religious and social inhibition or restrictions did they confront? And so forth. I find if a disease or surgery has to do with the sexual organs or the rectum, nobody talks.
People are desperate to know but embarrassed to ask. When I finally managed to print a frank interview with a person who had a vasectomy operation, the magazine sold out and even five years later people would ask me for the printing date of the interview.
That means even five years on nothing was done to inform the public. Currently this is the case of information about prostate cancer. People, at least those who are aware that there is such a disease, are desperate for information. But by and large the disease is not known. If a man has difficulty passing urine it could be a symptom of prostate cancer. But for our village and folk in small towns the problem is thought to be and indication of impending old age. And if the man is old he is near death anyway, so when he dies no one thinks a cancer killed him.
Twenty years ago nobody talked openly about breast or uterus cancer. There were hundreds of deaths because ignorance of symptoms meant the disease was detected when a cure or control of its spread could not be undertaken. Then a massive nation-wide campaign was launched to inform the public in villages, towns and cities, through radio programmes, television interviews of doctors, articles in womens magazines in English, Urdu and regional languages. Even the fund raiser campaign for Shaukat Khanum Hospital helped to create mass awareness. A lot of publicity was given to famous artistes and filmstars who had breast cancer. Today even your housemaid and her sisters in Pind Dadan knows the symptoms of breast and uterus cancers and what treatment is available for it.
It is imperative that a similar campaign for public awareness is launched for prostate cancer. One of the possible reasons why nothing has been done yet could be that there are no drugs for treating prostate cancer. Certain drugs have been tested successfully but there are medical formalities to be completed before they are put on the market. Because of the absence of drugs to treat prostate cancer, perhaps doctors felt it was no use talking about the disease since they could offer no hope to patients. All that will soon change once the drugs are marketed. Nevertheless, there is no reason why the disease cannot be talked about while we wait for the miracle drugs. Doctors, wake up!