Douala: Experts enjoin pressmen to lead campaign against cervical cancer.

They sounded the alarm during a workshop organised by both health institutions with journalists who are members of Cameroon Association of English-Speaking Journalists, CAMASEJ-Douala chapter 

The workshop was placed under the theme: “We can end cervical cancer, get informed, get vaccinated, get screened”. 

It was aimed at sensitising the media persons on the gravity of the disease and how it can be prevented. The CBC health experts noted that the media being the fourth estate cannot be sidelined in efforts made to eliminate serious public health issues such as cervical cancer. 

Again, January being the Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, it was vital for the media to get verified information with which they can better carry out their role in educating the masses on the disease, which kills many but yet can be preventable.

Going by Reproductive Health Specialist, Dr Simon Manga, cervical cancer is preventable and curable, as long as it is detected early and managed effectively. Yet it is the 4th most common form of cancer among women worldwide, with the disease claiming the lives of more than 300,000 women in 2018.

Principal cause of cervical cancer

Dr Manga said the principal cause of cervical cancer is the Human Papilloma virus, HPV. Many people don’t know about the virus but it’s the most common sexually transmitted organism worldwide and it’s the principal cause of cervical cancer.

"HPV transmitted mostly through sexual contact. It doesn’t only cause cancer of the cervix, it can equally cause cancer of the vagina, cancer of the anus, cancer of the vulva and for men it can cause cancer of the penis and for both sexes it can cause cancer of the throat,” Dr Simon Manga explained during the workshop.

In May 2018, World Health Organisation, WHO Director-General announced a global call for action to eliminate cervical cancer, underscoring renewed political will to make elimination a reality and calling for all stakeholders to unite behind this common goal. 

In August 2020 the World Health Assembly adopted the Global Strategy for cervical cancer elimination.

In order to achieve elimination, WHO recommends all countries to reach and maintain an incidence rate of below four per 100,000 women. Each country should meet the 90–70–90 targets by 2030 to get on the path to eliminate cervical cancer within the next century.

Achieving that goal rests on three key pillars and their corresponding targets which are: vaccination: 90% of girls fully vaccinated with the HPV vaccine by the age of 15; screening: 70% of women screened using a high-performance test by the age of 35, and again by the age of 45; treatment: 90% of women with pre-cancer treated and 90% of women with invasive cancer managed. 

In Cameroon, as of 2023, the government approved that the vaccines can be used to vaccinate both boys and girls aged 9-14 years. However, for elderly women from 25 years, cervical cancer screening is done.

"When we do screening we are looking for pre-cancerous lesions because a woman gets infected with HPV it starts by causing a pre-cancerous lesions that have no sign or symptoms. If the woman does not come for screening, she would not discover that she has that. When we discover that during screening we can treat and destroy it so that it does not progress to become a full grown cervical cancer,” Dr Manga elaborated.

Eveline Maya, health advocate at Humanity At Heart International, told the press that there is urgent need for joined measures to be adequately employed to tackle the killer cancer. 

“It can be eliminated if we unite our voices, which is one of the reasons behind this workshop to build capacity so that civil society, faith-based organisations all key stakeholders, the government, ministry of health will unite ans convey one message to pull everyone to get screened. It will also enable our young girls and boys vaccinated and those that are diagnosed to be treated and together we can eliminate cervical cancer,” she said.