GUWAHATI, Feb 4: Centre for Health Research and Education, a UK-based organisation, will set up a tobacco cessation clinic at the North East Cancer Hospital and Research Institute (NECHRI) at Amerigog in the Jorabat area near here to provide free treatment to cancer patients of North East.
NECHRI managing director and research head, Munindra Narayan Baruah, made this announcement during a World Cancer Day programme on the hospital premises on Friday.
Eighteen tobacco cessation clinics have been set up in the country since 2002 under an initiative of World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Health Ministry, including one in Mizoram and Assam (Guwahati).
The services offered at the clinics include individual intervention in the form of behavioural counselling, medication and nicotine replacement therapy.
The centres also aim to create awareness about the negative effects of tobacco and tobacco cessation through awareness programmes, exhibitions training programmes on tobacco cessation for various professionals, and information booklets and manuals aimed at specific groups of the population.
The UK-based organisation will also conduct cancer awareness camps in various parts of the Northeastern region.
“One such camp will be conducted in Meghalaya’s Ri-Bhoi district on February 27. We have already conducted a camp in Nongpoh in April last year,” Baruaah said.
In all these camps, CHRE will provide free counselling and treatment to the cancer patients
“The growing number of cancer patients in the northeastern states has been a matter of concern for all. Esophageal cancer cases are increasing in Assam and Meghalaya,” he said.
“In Meghalaya, 123 cancer patients have been detected per 1 lakh individuals, as against 184 in Mizoram and 148 in Kamrup (Assam),” Baruah said.
“The number of stomach cancer patients has increased alarmingly in Mizoram,” he added.