In Ghana, everyone is a health specialist. Complain of any illness and everyone and their grandmother swears they know of something that can cure it. Regular checkups are not a normal thing in Ghana because people feel they know even more than the doctors and would rather drink a concoction made by someone whose child recently died of diarrhoea than go and get checked by a professional.
We have heard people come on TV and radio to tell Ghanaians with a straight face that men can prevent breast cancer in their women by sucking their breasts regularly. Gullible as we are, most people believe it and are using it as an excuse to suck the cancer out of their wives’ breasts, so to speak. But with all this breast sucking going on, breast cancer is still on the rise amongst Ghanaian women.
Is it that the men are not sucking well or that method just doesn’t work? It’s time we listened to the experts. According to Dr Beatrice Wiafe-Addai, Director of the Peace and Love Hospital and Breast Care International, there is no scientific proof that men sucking women’s breasts can prevent breast cancer.
Speaking at a health screening exercise organized by the Eastern Regional branch of the GJA for residents of Effiduase, Oyoko and Asokore, she stated that breast cancer was on the rise globally and the only way to be cured was early detection and treatment. She noted that breast sucking was only but a myth surrounding the disease and studies have shown that one out of eight women would develop the disease in their lifetime.
She commended the GJA for giving people the opportunity to screen for breast cancer and other diseases and hoped that other organizations would follow suit. A large number of people in the three communities benefited from breast cancer, hypertension, diabetes and HIV screening tests.