October has been made official for everyone to wear pink in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness month, where its purpose is self-explanatory, as it is more likely for one to get diagnosed with the disease than they’d like to think. However, lack of awareness on screening and access to health services, especially for those from rural areas and lower income groups, have made this a major problem in Malaysia to this day, as stated in a policy review on Breast Cancer Screening in Malaysia 2021.
Dr Vaishnavi Jeyasingam, an oncologist specialist at Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) since 2013, was invited for a short interview with MUDA Bukit Bintang, where she walked us through her journey treating cancer patients. Initially, she thought her career would be all about modern science research and advancement, but she soon learned that it is much more than that, especially when engaging with patients with different life stories. This has motivated her to continue doing her work.
Dr Vaishnavi emphasized on creating more awareness and to destigmatize the misconception that people have in regards to cancer treatments, as she said:
“Most patients tend to delay because of fear — this includes educated women. Traditional healers is a problem too, and people tend to trust alternative therapies more than professional doctors. Enforcement is quite poor in handling this problem too. Besides, many choose these alternative therapies because they believe medical treatment is toxic, chemotherapy is too harsh and they don’t want to go through that. This is a misconception that many have as there are actually many advancements that have been made and toxicity is much less for the treatments. In 2019, HKL collaborated with DBKL to do a mobile mammogram screening in lower income areas. Even when the machine is brought to them, many women are afraid to get checked because to them it’s unnecessary, with the “if you’re well, why would you go look for a disease” mindset in mind.”
Following the steps of other developed countries, Dr. Vaishnavi mentioned that the Malaysian government should make it compulsory for women to get breast cancer screenings to prevent late detection. This is because cure rates are much higher with all the advancements that we have today when detected early. Nevertheless, this can only be done within an educated population that comes with good health seeking behaviors, where they will take charge in taking care of themselves as government and individual efforts come hand in hand.
Originally published on MUDA Wilayah Newsletter in October 2021.
