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{
    "id": 6832,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/6832/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 390,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "The Assistant Minister for Public Health and Sanitation (",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Dr. Gesami): Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, we have looked at this Bill as the Government, both the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation and the Ministry of Medical Services and we are agreeable that this is a very important Bill to us and, in fact, those days that we used to think that non-communicable diseases were not as important as communicable diseases are gone. Cancer is a critical disease in this country and we need to address it. We are going to work together with the Mover and the Committee. We shall make sure that we bring in any necessary amendments at the Committee Stage to make sure that we pass this law, so that we can address cancer in this country. The reason why cancer has been ignored for a long time is that it is not communicable. You die alone. People have addressed issues of communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS and H1N1. The whole world gets vibrated when you talk about H1N1 and HIV/AIDS, but when you die of diabetes or cancer, you die alone. The other aspect, of course, is that there are so many associated factors of causation of cancer. Nobody knows exactly what causes cancer. We know for sure that smoking is very associated with bronchial carcinoma and issues of papillomatous virus with cervical cancer. We also know that genetics play a very important role in breast cancer. So, we need to look at all these issues and see how we can prevent this disease from attacking our citizens. We need to screen, approach and treat it early. We need to work together as the Government to make sure that we bring cancer under control."
}