Insight

Nazik Hammad: The cancer control needs of Africans affected by conflicts or natural disasters continue to be ignored

Photo of Nazik Hammad from deptmedicine.utoronto.ca

Oct 24, 2024, 12:32

Nazik Hammad: The cancer control needs of Africans affected by conflicts or natural disasters continue to be ignored

Nazik Hammad, Professor at the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the St. Michael’s Hospital, shared on LinkedIn:

“I was asked by Cancer Control 2024 to answer this question in their 2024 survey: are global events impacting on your country’s capacity to control cancer, and if so how?

How do you see the situation developing in the future?

I looked back at all the countries I come from, the ones my family has been displaced from and the ones they have been displaced to.

This is my short response :

‘This is not about one country. Forty million Africans are displaced by conflicts engulfing 16 countries. Climate change displaced 7 million.

Cancer services are disrupted or have never been developed due to the same conditions causing conflicts.

Cancer does not know not to strike displaced people.

The cancer control needs of Africans affected by conflicts or natural disasters continue to be ignored by the world resulting in unimaginable suffering. Time to put the focus on Africa.”

Nazik Hammad

Nazik Hammad is a Professor at the Division of Hematology and Oncology, St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto. She was the Chair of the Education and Training Committee of the African Organization for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC). Her academic work and research interests include medical education and workforce development in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.