Cancer in children: Diagnosis delayed is treatment denied, study calls for prompt action

A study that surveyed nearly 3,000 childhood cancer patients over two years across North and East India revealed that, on average, it takes 56 days after the onset of symptoms for treatment to begin. The major delay occurs at the diagnosis stage.

While the Covid-19 pandemic forced millions of people in the country to stay at home last year, a couple lived in a hospital room 450 km away from their residence in Jammu and Kashmir for about eight months, waiting for some 'miracle' to happen.

The first sign of trouble had emerged in October 2019. Their three-year-old son fell ill and was running a temperature. The doctors told them it was probably typhoid fever, caused by a bacterial infection. In a few days, their child recovered from that bout.