In the news: Surge in cancer deaths among women, Telangana doctors suspended and more

Cancer deaths among women may rise by 60% by 2030

Cancer kills one in seven women around the world already but the death toll could rise to a monstrous 5.5 million per year by 2030 or a 60% increase from the current number of deaths. This projection made from the American Cancer Society is in one of two new reports that are predicting an explosion in cancer deaths among women. The society estimates that as the global population grows and ages, cancer will start taking the highest toll on women in middle- and low-income countries.

Another report published in the journal The Lancet estimates that the number of women who die from breast cancer alone will almost double from 1.7 million in 2015 to 3.2 million in 2030. Cervical cancer rates are expected to rise by 25% to more than 7,00,000 in the same time.

The burden will be high in poorer countries where healthcare systems allow only a much smaller proportion of cases to be diagnosed and a much larger group of of cancer-affected to die. The fact that improvements in healthcare are helping people live longer will only increase the disease burden. Women are also increasingly exposed to cancers that arise from socio-economic transitions in developing countries as they move to lifestyles with less physical activity and unhealthy diets combined with obesity and reproductive factors including postponing motherhood, the reports authors say.

Kozhikode man arrested for refusing to let his newborn child be fed

A man in Kozhikode district in Kerala was arrested on Saturday under the Juvenile Justice Act for not letting his wife breastfeed their newborn child for 24 hours. According to news reports, Abubacker Sidique had been advised by a preacher not to feed the child until he had heard five prayer calls from the mosque.

Sidique allegedly prevented his wife from breastfeeding the infant who was born on Wednesday. He had his wife and child discharged from the Mukkam hospital and allowed her to feed the child only a full day later. The police acted on a complaint filed by a nurse at the Mukkam hospital.

The preacher, 75-year-old Hydrose Thangal, has also been arrested. Police said that Siddique’s wife had also been named in the case but had not been arrested so that she could look after the child.

Nine Telangana doctors suspended for limb-lengthening and other operations

The Telangana State Medical Council suspended nine doctors on Friday for unethical practices. Among those suspended was an orthopaedic surgeon at Hyderabad’s Global Hospital who conducted a limb-lengthening surgery on a 22-year-old man that left the patient bed-ridden. The ban was given on the grounds that the doctors had not sought the consent of the man’s parents, as it was a rare and experimental procedure.

The council also suspended a fertility doctor who counseled a couple through surrogacy but finally handed over a child who was not biologically conntected to them. The doctor has been suspended for five years but with a lifelong ban on performing surrogacy procedure. Yet another doctor in Karimnagar was suspended for performing indiscriminate appendicitis surgeries.