All hands on deck to fight cervical cancer

OVER the past 10 years, Zimbabwe has seen an alarming rise in cancer cases. The National Health Strategy of Zimbabwe indicates that cancer is a major cause of morbidity and mortality with over 5 000 new diagnoses and over 1 500 deaths per year. The strategy calls for increased investment in cancer prevention, early detection, control, palliative care and rehabilitation through population-wide, integrated approach . . .

Once seen as a disease of affluence, cancer has now evaded all classes of society and has seen a strong national response to scale up prevention and ensure early diagnosis of cases to improve treatment outcomes.

Cervical cancer is the second commonest cancer in women globally. Every year, 530 000 new cervical cancer cases are diagnosed, with 275 000 deaths. Over 85 percent of the cervical cancer cases occur in developing countries, and 2050, cervical cancer cases will amount to 1 million out of which 900 000 will be in developing countries.

The incidence of cervical cancer in Zimbabwe is reported to be 35 per 100 000 women. Each year, 2 270 new cases are reported with 1 541 associated deaths. Ninety-nine percent of cervical cancers are associated with the Human Pappiloma Virus. Having realised the gravity of cervical cancer incidence in Zimbabwe, the Ministry of Health and Child Care with support from its partners such as UNICEF, GAVI and WHO decided to introduce the HPV vaccine in pilot projects. The project has been successful in reaching a coverage of 88,4 percent in two districts. Based on lessons learnt and capacity built during the pilot, Zimbabwe is now launching a nationwide scaling up of HPV vaccination.

As is the case with most terminal diseases, prevention is better than cure. Recently, First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa has been on an aggressive nationwide campaign to encourage women to be screened for cervical cancer, especially in the hard to reach areas of the country.

To further strengthen these efforts, the First Lady is set to spearhead the launch of the National Campaign to introduce the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. The national HPV vaccination campaign will see about 800 000 girls in schools in all 63 districts of Zimbabwe being vaccinated against cervical cancer in a month.

The campaign is being led by Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) and Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) of the Government of Zimbabwe. UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, GDSK, JSI and other partners are lending full support to Government of Zimbabwe in this regard.

The main cause of cervical cancer, Human Papillomavirus (HPV), is a common virus which spreads easily through skin-to-skin contact during sexual activity with an infected person. HPV types 16 and 18 are associated with about 70 percent of all cervical cancer cases. The risk factors for HPV infection and cervical cancer include early sexual debut and multiple sexual partners.

Since the HPV vaccine is being introduced nationwide in Zimbabwe, it is important to understand HPV and the HPV vaccine.

HPV infections are so common that nearly all men and women will get at least one type of HPV at some point in their lives. Most people never know that they have been infected and may give HPV to a sex partner without knowing it.

Most people with HPV never develop symptoms or health problems with most HPV infections (nine out of 10) going away by themselves within two years. But, sometimes, HPV infections will last longer, and can cause certain cancers and other diseases.

All girls aged nine to 14 years old should get the recommended series of HPV vaccine. The vaccination series can be started at age nne years. Teen girls who did not get vaccinated when they were younger should get it now. HPV vaccine is recommended for young women through age 26, and young men through age 21. ◆ Read the full article on www.herald.co.zw