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IGNORANCE may be bliss—but for certain women, it could
be fatal. This was underlined by the Department of
Health (DOH) Monday in reporting that the unacceptable
rate of cervical cancer deaths has continued in the last
two decades because Filipinas did not know or knew too
late they have the disease.
Dr.
Yolly Oliveros, director of the DOH’s National Center
for Disease Prevention and Control, said 10 Filipinas
die daily because of cancer of the cervix, the second
most common type of cancer among Filipinas.
“The
figure has remained unchanged for the past 20 years.
This is one of the cancers that can be prevented only if
women know how to prevent it through proper education,”
said Oliveros during the observance of Cervical Cancer
Awareness Month.
Every
year about 7,000 new cases of cervical cancer are
detected, according to the Cervical Cancer Prevention
Network Program (Cecap) whose program director, Dr.
Cecilia Llave, has noted that the overall survival rate
of stricken Filipinas has not changed for the past 30
years because of late diagnosis.
“About
two-thirds of the time, they are already in the terminal
stage of the disease,” said Llave, who also chairs the
Cancer Institute of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH).
The
health department recently amended its screening policy
and treatment of cervical cancer as the growing
incidence of the human papilloma virus that afflicts
women of reproductive age or those between 25 to 45
years was noted to be on the rise.
Under
the new scheme, government hopes to reach its target of
50 to 80 percent of women in the next five years in part
because it will involve community health workers by
training them for early cervical cancer diagnosis and
treatment.
Health
workers will apply the “Single-Visit Approach” where
they will use acetic acid that is applied to the cervix
using a cotton swab to check for the virus.
Llave
said this system will be convenient and practical,
especially in provincial health centers where there are
no pap smear facilities. |
