Fight against Cervical Cancer:
Journalists, Health Expert Calls On Cameroonians To Be More Involved In Screening & Vaccination
By Etienne Mainimo Mengnjo
Cameroonians have been urged to go in for screening and vaccination against cervical cancer. The call was made on January 19 in Yaounde during a one-day workshop on the cervical cancer elimination initiative in Cameroon.
The workshop was placed under the theme; “We can end Cervical Cancer! Get Informed, Get Vaccinated! Get Screened!” The workshop was organized by the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Board, CBCHS, and Humanity At Heart International, H@H in collaboration with the Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalists, CAMASEJ Yaounde Branch.
The workshop that brought together the media and civil society organizations was aimed at sensitizing on the gravity of the disease, prevention, and how they can help in alerting the public on what to do.
Speaking during the workshop, Dr. Simon Manga, Deputy Director for Clinical Services of the CBCHS said, “Cervical cancer, which has taken several lives and is still taking lives can be treated if detected early. It can also be prevented with the help of a vaccine, which is free. Since 2007, the CBCHS, through its Vaccination Programme has actively engaged in vaccinating young girls against cervical cancer. Women and especially young girls are encouraged to go for routine checks and to get vaccinated because cancer is expensive to treat and easier to prevent.”
Dr. Manga added that despite the efforts made, the main constraint has been vaccination hesitancy where people are afraid to allow their children to take the vaccines. “When we started, it was only for girls but good enough, the government approved it for boys beginning January 2023. With this inclusion of boys and a single dose, we can go far.”
He maintained that Cameroon is still far behind and needs to do a lot to achieve the WHO target of 90-70-90 by 2023 where WHO is recommending that all nations by 2030 should have vaccinated 90 percent of all girls by age 15 and screened 70 percent of women with high-performance tests and those with precancerous. “To attain this, everybody needs to come on board including the government, media, and Civil Society Organisations among others,” he said.
While admitting that a lot still needs to be done, Dr. Justine Essoni, Deputy Permanent Secretary, of the National Cancer Committee said, the target of the committee is to make sure that the pillars of eradication of cervical cancer are being put in place in the country. This includes vaccination, screening, and treatment.
Meanwhile, Dr. Elit Laurie, Vice Dean of Research at Baptist Institute of Health, Mbingo Hospital, who has been coming to Cameroon since 2016, that Universal Health Care is the biggest priority for Cameroon, training of surgical staff and equipment given that the rural population is still far from affording.
While resolving that and urging Cameroonians to go in for screening and vaccination as well as treatment, Eveline Mayaah of H@H called on the media to help in advocating for policy changes, raising awareness, education, and support among others.
Strives towards the elimination by the CBCHS were also pointed out where approaches such as the school-based approach (CBC Schools), Health Facility approach, Mother-Daughter approach, and Church-based approach (CBC Churches) are being used.
Cancer is a disease in which cells in the body grow out of control and is caused by the human Papilloma Virus. According to the WHO 2020 estimates, Cervical Cancer ranks fourth in incidence and mortality in women globally with over 604,000 new cases annually and 342,000 deaths.
Cervical Cancer is also ranked the number one and two cancer killer of women across Sub-Saharan Africa with over 72,000 new cases annually and in Cameroon, it ranks as the second most common cancer with 2,770 new cases and 1,878 deaths. According to experts, one woman dies of cervical cancer every 2 minutes… Each one is a tragedy, and we can prevent it.
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