 Thanks for staying with us. It's still the break first on PLOS TV Africa. Now we're talking World Cancer Day and ongoing battle. Remember that World Cancer Day was on the 4th of February 2024. It's always on the 4th of February and we have right now joining us Dr. Fajiro Chinyanwoko CEO NSSF That is an Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund. Good morning and welcome to the program doctor. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm just wondering they they there is cancer awareness month and then there is World Cancer Day. Why was it not why were these two not merged together? Why was there a reason they should be separated? Okay, so the World Cancer Day is to bring into the forefront the What's what the initiatives around cancer in Nigeria and is to is to highlight the importance and then the impact of cancer in Nigeria so different from the cancer month and and this year's World Cancer Day was really Timmed around the care and eleditation prevention and treatment for cancer We also know that cancer. We have over 120,000 New cancer cases every year in Nigeria and more than 50% of these people die every year in Nigeria So the World Cancer Day is to bring that impact to life and also to bring forward the initiatives That are being done as a country and one of them really is on prevention And that's why it's important to us as Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund To speak about this on World Cancer Day because 40% of cancers can be prevented I'm sure you didn't know that 40% can be prevented 40% can be cured during any Detection phase and so if we if we take care of 80% of cancers then we have just 20% left And this preventable cancers are cancers that result as a group of virus infections And one of them is the cervical cancer that is likely caused by the human papilloma virus Other cancers are like the liver cancers that are caused by Hepatitis B and C which also have access to prevent it So as NSSF what we're doing for World Cancer Day is bringing to mind that 40% of cancers can be prevented by Vaccines and so raising awareness again for vaccine uptake in Nigeria We know that cure for cancer ranges between 30 to 30 million and Then seeing that we have a population that over 80 million and be there with multi-dimensional poverty And that is living with 3000 naira or below a day. We know that many people will not be 3,000. It's a luxury So we know that not everybody will be able to afford the cancer treatments and cure So why not prevent it with vaccines that are free of charge? I really didn't know 40% I thought if detected fast even a hundred percent of this cancer can be treated But the thing is like it is said in Chiqui and the Revival book I read in secondary school to go as Havana had not to return You know So it's possible that there could be a cure for even all the cancers But can it be affordable just like you've said 30 million? So does it gladden you that the federal government just said not too long ago Maybe in a matter of days that the federal government's health insurance scheme is going to include cancer Is that part of what really makes you happy? It's actually a very well-come initiative Because we know that cancer treatment is very expensive and it's not easily affordable So if the health insurance can cover cancer, they didn't specify What level of treatment because at the very beat of cancer treatments, but no matter the level it is something For the average I'm not sure it should be no much Because sometimes you go to these NIS or what about NHIS facilities and For everything that you complain is paracetamol you get so we need to define What level they are going to get to maybe your organization and as a full do something about that We need to know where that will reach Okay, so cancer treatment what I said at different levels because there's some that will just require surgery There's some that require chemotherapy. There's some that require radiotherapy There's some that require, you know, a standard length of time. That's why I said I don't know yet But I'm sure that it will come up and something we need to know But it is a very good Initiative because then we can also detect cancer early because even cancer Screening is expensive beyond the treatment We're talking about early detection. So if it's if if the health insurance can includes cancer That means people can get screening for nothing and that will improve early detection and it will improve cure to cancer In the studio, what is the success story or otherwise of it? Okay, so the HPV vaccine will not happen last year the first phase and then the second phase is coming up again This year I think sometime in May and by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency and the first rule out was quite successful It was for a Stipulated period of time because of the quantity of vaccines available. It was quite successful do the resistance again Like I said, that's resistance. Yes by parents because it was for the girl child between nine to 14 So we experienced resistance. We experienced a lot of myths And beliefs about the vaccine not being Not being suitable for the girl child or and having a Deglitant health effect on the girl child, but so far it was very good The opticals would nationwide and we are trusting that by the second phase would be able to mop up The other girls that couldn't get during the first rule out and as NSSF what we are doing is that we Organize the we Niger campaign, which is a youths campaign In last year from October to December And what we did was to rally the youths around Nigeria to speak about the HPV vaccine to create content in Social media about the HPV vaccine and then to educate people on where they could get this vaccine And we saw that to be very productive because again people were able to hear from non-healthcare workers And how the vaccines can prevent cervical cancer in the girl child and that's really led to a lot of Modest thinking action with HPV, but that sounds very urban like you know, what about the people in the villages? Some of them don't even have access to The internet or the social media. So what did you do or what are you intending to do to include this group of people? Thank you. So in partnership with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency again That's the government agency in charge of vaccination And what our partnership is about is providing both financial resources and technical capacity building to Conduct outreaches in communities in Nigeria That's we were able to reach the rural communities and improve access to vaccine and the last mile Those access to vaccine also go with a lot of health promotions and advocacy for the HPV vaccine as well So in partnership with them we it enables vaccines to go to the last mile also enable supervision and Monitoring at the different levels the world levels the local government level the state and then the national level With that our school reproject is what we call it strengthening the conduct of optimized outreaches With that project who are able to reach rural communities that are not over Interesting You talked about Creating awareness so that people who come down with this can access Medication that is free you use the word free elaborate on that. Let me hear. Okay, so I said vaccines Vaccines Because prevention it's vaccines means vaccines to prevent viral Enabled cancers so vaccines in Nigeria are free. So the appetite is free for now Is it forever the routine any vaccine that is in the routine immunization is free No, it has been free. That's the government's way of Ensuring that is equitable health vaccine against cancer vaccine against virus Cancers are a result of viral a virus infection But cancers that I result of virus infection that have the vaccine are free as long as they are in the national immunization scheme Okay, so what lessons did you learn from the last rollout that you intend to Find tune in the next first is that a lot of non-health care workers are very ignorant of health of the health impact of things like cancer and Of things like HPV infection HPV Infection right now is opposing 25% of people in Nigeria But we found out when engaging Nigerian youths and building their capacity and running the campaign that a lot of non-health Very ignorant with health practices that consented So what we'd intend to do with that is to make sure that we increase the length of time for the campaign So we've been having this campaign the last three months of every year But what we're intending to increase it to about six months So we have adequate time for health education and health promotion because that would help Secondly, we found that that people are becoming very very Skeptical about vaccines. It's just like a black box that you don't know why they're skeptic And they don't also know why they're resistance, but who's the time to adjust resistance? I think that we could just don't like things that are free and that has to return your body Then if I don't know what they feel it is. So we want to also demystify Vaccine use in and vaccine resistance in Nigeria. What are the issues? Can we have? Conversations about that. Can we have town home meetings in rural communities on social media or through Twitter spaces? Can we have town home meetings? Can we really talk about what are your fears and what are those? Are those fears unfounded? Are they founded? Can we address the roots of the fear and the resistance with vaccine? And lastly is that, you know, we we we don't have enough resources. It's everybody. So we need more partnerships Private sector partnerships and the last time and so this time we're going to get more partnerships to reach more people Because I was getting worried when you talked about the fact that you were partnering with the primary health care and all that Yeah, I know there are in the villages. They are supposed to be the ones to talk to the people I was worried that I didn't hear anything about the traditional institution being part of it Because some of these people who work in the villages as nurses and all that, they own very big farms They go to their farms. They abandon what they're supposed to do. They may not. So I'm worried also about the monitoring How do you monitor that these people who are given the mandate to educate the others are really doing it? Do they come back to reports? How was the instrument? So when we say partner with national primary health care, it's because also they also partner with traditional rulers And then they partner with religious rulers in this community and people that have contact with these people That have the trust of the community as well. And so with our school we project, which is the strengthening of the conduct of We are able to support the supervision, make sure that their reports, our treatise are documented And then also M&E, so which is monitoring and evaluation is done from the local level, the world level to state level So that we're sure that they are actually conducting this outreach that money is being invested into So we have that level of supervision ongoing instead. We also have that level of collaboration So when we speak to our town-only teams, our fireside chats that we conduct quarterly We also bring traditional rulers. We bring civil society groups together. We bring the private sector also together So we try to bring our stakeholders in vaccine space to make sure that we reduce first on the fight mortality and then cancers Oh that's nice. That's very nice. Okay, so I don't know. What's like the way forward now? What are we looking at? Let's start with the fact that you have rolled out these things. It's not enough to just say it was very successful What percentage were you able to achieve and what do you intend to achieve later in the next one that is coming up in May? Okay, so in terms of achievements, I don't have the numbers yet but I'm sure that we can speak to the numbers Exactly, but I said in terms of the quantity of vaccines we had, we are so stretched out So that's why I said it was so stretched out So we had the quantity that we could afford as a nation at that time which was a source there So yes, and that's why there's been a lot going on That's why there's a rollout, there's a second phase and of course we're getting increasing Little as you think it may seem is that the truth is that we're making progress This is the first time that we're rolling out HPV vaccine nationwide And countries have been rolling out for 12 years so we are there now with progress So we would eventually get to 100% of these girls over time, so it won't happen in a day You hope to have more this time? Yes, of course, it's going to be purchased again by the government, the purchase and you know I don't know the number But they're going to purchase more than they did last time, again because sensitization has gone out So the first time is usually more headache because people are just learning about it for the first time But the second time, a lot of health education is being done so in preparation of the second rollout So we hope that this will even be more successful than the first time And then we as NSSF will also know that we will strengthen our partnerships with them And then we would also invest more in making sure that we actually educate people and then they have access to this vaccine So whoever had the shot last time shouldn't have it again? No, they shouldn't, it's a one dose vaccine for a lifetime Interesting, so is there anything else we can do to make sure the message goes viral? That's the word they use nowadays Definitely, I think that for media houses and partners as well as for Nigerians that are listening today I think that what will be important is to educate the people around you Family, your friends, your colleagues that the HPV vaccine can prevent cervical cancer in the girl child And for the women that have not gotten the vaccine, they can also get the vaccine to prevent cervical cancer So it's very important, men also carry us and so the vaccine is available for men but not under the national rollout They would have to go to maybe private facilities to get the vaccine and anti-paid fees But we know that eventually when we have mopped up the girl child, the country will open up to both men and women After one increase the age range, shall we say that when you hear people talking about cancers You can speak to them about how it can be prevented You can speak to them about early detection and you can speak to them about the NHS and registration So that in case they are diagnosed with cancer, they can get treatment You can be an advocate for health, you don't need to be a health worker Oh, we can keep inviting you back to keep talking about it What other organisations do you collaborate with? I'm just curious Yes, so we collaborate with civil society organisations and there are several other rural communities We collaborate with them, we collaborate with also our funders or private sector that fund what we're doing Health and health care, several private organisations for that mission But in terms of health, we're also collaborating with technology health Technology organisations where I'm speaking with them because we also want to make health data public Because if we're raising advocates, advocates needs to have access to health data And how many we're vaccinating, how many we're vaccinating, I'm not able to tell you that Because health data is not yet public-facing So right now in partnerships, we're talking with health and health organisations Health tech organisations where we can use technology to provide data electronically Real-time to everyone just the way we were tracking the COVID-19 spread then With the dashboard done by the NCDC We can have that publicly-facing data for cancer, for vaccines So that when you're advocating to the government, advocating to people, you can speak through data So that's our new collaboration I would say the last rollout was a heart rate percent because all the vaccines were exhausted So if we had some left, we would know the percentage that was left So I'd say 100% congratulations to that out to you We do hope that the next one will be more successful But before you go, just talk to Nigeria This is the forum you have to talk to the advocates free of charge Thank you So in celebration of World Cancer Day I would employ you to first screen So do your best examination for a woman If you're above 40, go for your mammogram If you're a man above 40, you need to do your cancer check for prostate cancer For the gastrointestinal cancer Early check routine checkups At least once a year, you should screen for cancers depending on your sex, male or female I would also say what you can do is to advocate for people to go for early detection For screening as well so that they can have any detection And for the vaccine preventing cancers, they are free of charge You can get it if you have not been vaccinated for hepatitis B and C This is a good time to go to any health facility to take the vaccine And take your children So it's for children, it's for adults, it's for everyone Take your children, take your workers, take your staff for that vaccine It is free of charge It prevents the burden of diseases coming back to you as a primary caregiver Then I would say join forces with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency Once the rollout for HPV starts, please broadcast it using your channels Thank you She had to end with us And giving us a task I would like to thank you Dr. Pedro for coming on the programme as usual It's always a pleasure to have you here Thank you so much We've been talking with Dr. Pedro Chinie, CEO of Nigerian Solidarity Support Fund We're talking about cancer and how accessible it is to the various vaccines that you need for it Let's take advantage of that and make sure that we don't die unnecessarily Or get infected unnecessarily Or suffer unnecessarily what we could have prevented And this eventually is where we're wrapping up on the show this morning It was a pleasure knowing that you are there with us Let's return tomorrow for yet another edition of the programme My name is Nyam Gul Aghaji Have a wonderful day