By Jane Mlambo| Sexually active men have a lower rate of getting prostate cancer, Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr John Mangwiro told parliamentarians yesterday.

Responding to legislators who wanted to know how men can avoid prostate cancer, Mangwiro said men who frequently have intercourse have lower chances of getting the disease that had 1.4 million treated cases globally in 2020.

“Those men who are very sexually active, the rate of getting cancer is much lower than those who are not. There are so many ideas. Those who do it more frequently have got lower chances,” said Mangwiro.

He also spoke on ways men can check if they have prostate cancer including via the anal canal.

“The first one is us putting the finger up and checking the prostate via the anal canal to check that the prostate is fine,” said Mangwiro. 

“The next one is we use blood; we take blood samples and check for prostatic surface antigen quantities.  Once those are raised, we can determine whether someone has got prostate cancer or not,” added Mangwiro.