Those who depend on daily income, like the stall owners seen in this filepic, are unlikely to go for cancer screening at public hospitals as it would mean the loss of around four days of income.
If you are poor and you get cancer, you’re pretty much doomed. While this dreaded disease strikes without caring how much money you have in the bank, the realities of life dictate that there is a big gap in how the poor and the rich are able to manage this condition.
“We’re actually finding out that people who are poorer tend to come with cancer far later,” says public health specialist Dr Murallitharan M. “When they come in the later stages of the disease – stages 3 or 4 – they tend to die. So being poorer when you get cancer is associated with you dying far earlier than when you’re rich and having cancer.”
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