Data shows cervical cancer kills 8 daily

 Data from Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) Malawi shows that about 2 900 women and girls die of cervical cancer every year in the country, translating to about eight deaths daily.

In its presentation to journalists in Blantyre on Saturday, MSF said about 4 000 women and girls are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year, representing about 11 new cases per day.

MSF France-Malawi head of mission Marion Pechayre observed that most of the cervical cancer deaths occur in Malawi due to late detection of the human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes the disease.

She said cervical cancer is preventable and curable if detected early, but noted that most women and girls in the country do not go for voluntary cervical cancer screening for early detection.

Pechayre said: “So, the coverage for HPV vaccination in Malawi is rather low and this is a difficult vaccination to access girls because it’s vaccination that you are supposed to make between nine and 14 years old, which is not the usual age for vaccination usually in all countries.

“The coverage of vaccination is one of the major challenges in the fight against cervical cancer.”

She noted that the fight against cervical cancer will be won if both men and women understand the importance of vaccinating their daughters.

Pechayre also noted that screening of all women of 25 years old and above every three years is key to preventing cervical cancer.

“If you detect cervical cancer during the screening at the very early stage, it’s easy to treat. You can be treated even in health centres,” she said.

In a separate interview, MSF g y n a e c o l o g y oncologist surgeon George Chilinda, who works at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) cervical cancer section, said shortage of gynae-oncologist surgeons in the country is also affecting the fight against cervical cancer.

He said the country’s public hospitals have only three gynaecology oncologist surgeons, one at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe and two, including him at QECH.

Said Chilinda: “Globally, Malawi is leading in cervical cancer related deaths, but in terms of cases, we are second from Lesotho. So the big problem is that the HPV virus is unchecked and not controlled because the immunisation of this virus is not fully available in the country.”

On in ter ven t ions government put in place to combat cervical and other cancers, Ministry of Health Principal Secretary Samson Mndolo asked for more time to comment on the matter.

But Ministry of Health technical adviser on cervical cancer James Kachingwe is on record as having said limited access to cervical cancer services and misconceptions are limiting factors to cervical cancer screening, particularly for rural women in the country.

He said Malawi has 450 facilities that provide cervical cancer screening, but some of them do not provide the services fully.

Kachingwe encouraged women to seize every opportunity and get screened, adding that early screening and treatment of lesions can save lives.

Last year, the ministry targeted to screen 617 775 women aged between 25 and 49. However, only 222 076 were screened due to unavailability of services in some health centres.