A medical expert, Professor Bukola Folashade Adeyemi of University College Hospital, Ibadan, has listed oral sex among factors that make humans susceptible to oral cancer, also known as mouth cancer.
Prof. Adeyemi, an oral pathologist, made this known on Monday in Abuja at the oral cancer training programme organised by the Cleft and Facial Deformity Foundation (CFDF).
Other risk factors in Nigeria she listed are: use of tobacco, alcohol, intense use of foods prepared over naked flames such as suya, and continuous infections in the mouth.
In his own remark, the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, represented by head of dentistry division of the ministry, Dr Gloria Uzoigwe, disclosed that the diseases is one of the leading causes of cancer related deaths in Nigeria.
According to him, on record, 1,146 new cases are recorded annually, with 764 deaths recorded from it.
This, the minister attributed to late reporting in hospitals, and inability of healthcare workers to detect the lesion early and refer appropriately among others.
