By Frank Kamuntu
Eliminate Cancer Foundation Uganda (ECFU) is on the frontline in the fight against cancer amongst Ugandans through boosting cancer awareness, and restoring hope amongst cancer patients and their families to reduce the number of unnecessary deaths due to cancer through research.
This organization was started in 2019 and has been the leading cancer awareness organization in Uganda since then. ECFU members are the organizers of World Cancer Day Awareness Walks in Kampala 2020, Jinja in 2021, Mbarara and Ishaka in 2022, Kampala again in 2023 and finally Mbale on 4th Feb 2024.
In 2021, the Organization carried out a survey in search of Cancer-Causing Compounds (Aflatoxins) in food, especially maize and its products. Samples were collected from Jinja, Mbale, Busia, Kampala and Wakiso Maize Collection centers and testing was done at the Analytical Biosciences Lab (ABL) at Makerere University.
The results from the above samples indicated that most of the samples were contaminated with aflatoxins which according to the Uganda Cancer Institute, those compounds are the major causes of Liver Cancer and Cancer of the Gall bladder which has since escalated in Uganda.
The above background explains why during this year’s World Cancer Day, Eliminate Cancer Foundation Uganda decided to focus on aflatoxins awareness in Mbale and Jinja where some of the samples were collected.
This year’s awareness campaign which was funded by Cerba Lancet Healthcare was under the theme; “aflatoxins, the silent killer in food”.
For those hearing about aflatoxins for the first time, these are toxins or poisons that are produced by a fungus known as aspergillus flavus and aspergillus parasiticus. This fungus grows well in wet or highly humid environments. Therefore, if the foods are not dried, stored or transported well, the fungus grows on the foods causing them to rot (okuwumba) hence the production of aflatoxins.
According to Musasizi Nasuru CEO Eliminate Cancer Foundation Uganda, foods that are usually contaminated with aflatoxins include maize grains and maize flour, cassava, ground nuts, rice and spices.
”Aflatoxins are one type of toxin or poison that is hard for the liver to break down. This causes these toxins to accumulate in the liver every time you eat foods contaminated with aflatoxins. With time, these toxins will attack and destroy liver cells, causing liver failure and cancer and finally death,” explains Musasizi;
”Aflatoxins can also contaminate animal feeds and may cause severe liver damage and death in poultry and animals hence lowering productivity.”
The organization has since tasked the government and other stakeholders to boost aflatoxins awareness if cancer is to be curbed in Uganda.
”Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Uganda National Bureau of Standards, and all media houses should work hand in hand with the farmers and traders to reduce aflatoxin contamination which in the long run will reduce Liver Cancer,” says Lukyamuzi Deus Abdallah Misigaro, Research Director at ECFU.
Ms Atii Irene Susan, the organization’s Permanent Secretary says farmers should harvest and dry their crops properly on drying materials like “tundubaali” and middlemen and buyers at collection centers should not buy crops that are not dried property or rotten ones.
”’Millers or collection centers, wholesalers and retailers should store their produce on wooden pallets (ebibaawo) to avoid moisture from entering the produce as this could lead to aflatoxins contamination,” says another ECFU member Byantaka Hanif.
The organization also says transporters should also transport their produce on wooden pallets in a vehicle that is properly covered to protect the crops from the rains.
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