SaneVax Team Congratulates Ghana – Sensible Cervical Cancer Prevention

By Norma Erickson

The SaneVax Team would like to express their appreciation to Ghana government and health officials. According to a recent article entitled, Rabito Clinic to organise cervical cancer screening:

The management of Rabito Clinic in collaboration with Ray Foundation Onlus (RFO), an Italian health institution are to organise cervical cancer screening to create awareness of the disease in the country.

The screening is scheduled from Wednesday June 15, at the Clinic behind Koala Shopping Centre in Accra.

Dr Anthony Dery, a Consultant at Rabito Clinic, said cervical cancer was a serious condition affecting women in the country.

The disease is caused by a virus called Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and occurs in the late teens and early twenties following onset of sexual activity, and when not treated early, may progress to cervical cancer over a period of 10-30 years.

Dr Derry said during persistent HPV infection, pre-cancerous changes might be detected in the cervix, therefore early detection and treatment of these changes was an affective strategy for prevention.

He said Sub-Sahara Africa and South America had the highest incidence of cervical cancer in the world as the disease accounts for one per cent of all adult deaths and two per cent of all women deaths. (Read the entire article here.)

Even though Ghana has one of the higher cervical cancer mortality rates in the world, nowhere in the article is there any mention of HPV vaccines. It appears the government officials and health authorities representing the citizens of Ghana truly care about their citizens health and well-being. In order to battle cervical cancer, they are instituting methods already proven safe and effective in other countries.

The SaneVax Team would recommend the rest of the world take a lesson from Ghana – what sense does it make to spend precious health care funds on one of the most expensive vaccines on the market in the hope that it may make an impact on cervical cancer decades down the road?