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Belize has seen just under 1,900 newly diagnosed cases of cancer between 2020 and 2024. The figures are from the Ministry of Health and Wellness. According to data from the Ministry’s Epidemiology Unit, a total of 1,890 cases were registered over the five years, which averages around 378 cases per year. The districts with the highest reported number of new cases are the Belize and Cayo Districts. Dr. Melissa Diaz Musa, Director of Public Health and Wellness, spoke to Love News on what types of cancer were the most prevalent.
Dr. Melissa Diaz Musa, Director of Health and Wellness: “Over the last five years, we have been noticing that the top five cancers have remained very similar throughout the time. So we would either be looking at cervical and breast vice versa for the number one or two. The third most common is usually cancer of, it’s termed cancer of unknown origin and usually it’s due to cancers where we can’t determine what the primary cancer was and he cancer has already metastasized. Fourth is usually kinds of the prostate which is only seen in male followed by colon. So these five diagnoses have been the top five diagnoses from 2020 and even before that and it continues to compare to countries that are in the similar bracket of Belize the statistics are similar. Annually, we would have about 200 or a little under 300 cases of Cancers.”
With the high prevalence of Cervical Cancer, Dr. Diaz says the ministry has been focusing on public education and preventative measures.
Dr. Melissa Diaz Musa, Director of Health and Wellness: “We have very much been dedicated to looking at these top five cancers and cancers on a whole to ensure that we are properly able to give good access for screening. Health education has improved and we have been looking at health education geared towards prevention of cancers or early detection as well. So we’ve started with our updating our cancer plan. This national cancer plan has been updated and it is currently almost finished in terms of for us to circulate. And in it as well we have included ways that Belize as a country can prevent the cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is one cancer that is very much preventable as many of the diagnosis is associated with the virus, the human papilloma virus. So in Belize we have started, we introduced the HPV vaccine in 2016 and the target group were are children 10 to 14 years old, boys or girls. And however, I must say that whoever comes in for the HPV vaccine you’re not turned away, but our target is 10 to 14. So that has been steadily increasing. Of course, we’ve got to keep in mind that the time during COVID, a lot of our work had fallen back significantly. So we’ve doubled our response now and we’re trying to ensure that the boys and girls 10 to 14 have readily have access to the vaccine. In addition to that, Belize has introduced the HPV swab and the self swab, which is something that has had very good response from the community.”
According to the data, 1,420 Belizeans have died from cancer between 2020 and 2024.
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