Introduction
There are various health issues that exist all over the world. These health issues have been causing problems to many people all over the world. There are countries that have been able to combat these health issues while there are other countries that have relied on help from other countries in order for them to combat these health issues. There are issues that have been seen in specific countries while there are other issues that have been prevalent worldwide. The difference in the class status of these countries is what differentiates the different abilities to fight the said world issues. Underdeveloped as well as developing countries always have trouble in dealing with these issues mostly because of the insufficient resources. These insufficient resources do not permit the country to conduct extensive researches on the different world issues. However, each country displays its unique ability to fight the said world issues.
Over the recent years, cancer has become a great health issue in the world. This is because the disease has been a great problem to the underdeveloped countries as well as the developed countries. The spread of this disease has been rampant in these countries. The respective countries have been injecting funds into conducting researches that might be able to bring the hope of curbing this disease. There are two countries under study that will help us understand the spread as well as the different mechanisms that have been applied in different areas to curb this disease. The two countries are Australia and Nigeria. Cancer is a disease that involves unregulated cell growth. In this disease, the cells divide and grow without control. They end up forming tumors as well as spreading to nearby parts of the body.
Cancer is caused by various factors. These factors however include, poor diet, excessive use of tobacco, exposure to radiation for long periods as well as factors that are found in the environment as a result of environmental pollution. There are more than a hundred types of cancer that have been recorded over time. However, there are several prevalent types of cancer that have been seen throughout the world. These are breast cancer, cervical cancer, colon cancer, throat cancer, skin cancer, lymphoma and prostate cancer. Cancer is a leading cause of death globally according to the World Health Organization (Cancers 2009:1).
Prostate cancer is common in the two countries that have been mentioned above. This type of cancer attacks the prostate glands in the male reproductive system. This type of cancer develops from the gland cells. Most of the types of prostate cancers grow slowly and may easily cause death without being detected. The symptoms of the disease appear late in the development of the disease and is felt as pain while urinating. Prostate cancer is treated by subjected to digital rectal examination which will be able to figure the infected prostate cells rather than the entire cancerous cells in the whole body. According to National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (page 7), biopsy is used to detect the cancer clinically. Prostate cancer can be prevented by changing the eating and lifestyle habits so that they have balanced diets and also they exercise regularly. This will include a low-fat diet as well as drinking alcohol in moderation in order to maintain a healthy weight. Frequent screening will also help in detecting this disease early.
The prevalence of this disease has been on the rise however this is under recorded in the country of Nigeria. This has been seen due to several reasons such as inadequate diagnostic services as well as poor access to medical care from the whole country according to(Abdulkareem 2009:5) Prostate cancer has overtaken liver cancer in males according to Abdulkareem. In Nigeria, this type of cancer occurs mainly in men who are over 40 years of age. This has been attributed to the difference in environmental as well as genetic factors and that is why the country has high cases of the prostate cancer (Abdulkareem 2009:34). The introduction of screening machines has enabled early detection of the cancer and thus the numbers have been constantly increasing since many died earlier due to not knowing they had the disease.
According to the Australian Government (2013), the number of citizens who are diagnosed of cancer keeps increasing with every year. This is the same with prostate cancer. This report says that prostate cancer is more common to the older people. Weak immune system may also be a problem to the old people. The people who lived in lower socio-economic statuses also have a higher chance of having the disease than the people who live in the higher socio-economic statuses. According to the Cancer Council Australia (page 1), almost 3000 men die from prostate cancer each year. The report says that prostate cancer causes second highest number of deaths in men after lung cancer and has the most number of cases. In Australia, the case is the same as the old men are more susceptible to getting the disease than other age groups. Early screening of the disease however reduces the risk of contacting this prostate cancer. The country has screening centers that help reduce the risk of late detection of the prostate cancer. This helps the country to plan on how it will deal with the patients early enough to prolong their lives.
There are several measures the governments of both underdeveloped countries as well as developed countries have taken to try and reduce the effects of the prostate cancer. The developed countries however have an upper hand because of the availability of resources. This increases their ability to conduct researches as well as acquire machines that will be used in the scanning of the diseases. This difference in resources brings about the difference in the rate of mortality between the developed and the underdeveloped countries.
Reference
Malcolm R Alison, Cancer Imperial College School of Medicine, http://web.udl.es/usuaris/e4650869/docencia/segoncicle/genclin98/recursos_classe_%28pdf%29/revisionsPDF/Cancer.pdf
World Health Organization (2009) Cancers http://www.who.int/nmh/publications/fact_sheet_cancers_en.pdf
Fatimah Abdulkareem, (2009) Epidemiology & Incidence of Common Cancers in Nigeria
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (N.I.H.C.E) (2008) Prostate Cancer: diagnosis and treatment. http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/pdf/cg58niceguideline.pdf
Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council (2010) Prostrate Cancer Screening in Australia: Position Statement http://www.cancerscreening.gov.au/internet/screening/publishing.nsf/Content/449D837448F6BA03CA25752700062313/$File/joint%20prostate%20screening%20statement.pdf
