GHS initiates cervical cancer prevention strategy

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) is drafting a cervical cancer strategy to support national efforts at prevention and control.

The strategy seeks to chart a course for the country to achieve the global elimination targets while streamlining the multiple disjointed efforts to address the condition.

In that regard, the service, with support from the World Health Organisation (WHO), has established a Technical Working Group for cervical cancer.

This was disclosed by the Director-General of the GHS, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, at the human papillomavirus (HPV) symposium in Accra last Thursday.

The event was organised by Omni Diagnostic Ltd on the theme: “Advancing Awareness, Building Capacities, and Enhancing Health Care in the Fight Against Cervical Cancer and Human Papillomavirus”.

It sought to sensitise healthcare providers to cervical cancer and HPV to increase knowledge on their management and provide exposure to available diagnostics.

The symposium brought together over 200 participants made up of health professionals, researchers, development partners and policymakers.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye added that although those efforts had been initiated, there was a need for the country to be deliberate and invest in the prevention and control of cervical cancer.

“We need to consolidate our efforts to ensure that we make progress in cervical cancer prevention and control in the country,” he said.

Statistics

Globally, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women, with 604,000 new cases and 342,000 related deaths recorded in 2020.
Low-and middle-income countries bore over 90 per cent of those deaths.

In Ghana, cervical cancer represents the second most common cancer in females, affecting an estimated 3,151 women, with a case fatality rate of 66 per cent.

Strategies

Over the years, he said, a number of strategies had been implemented in the country to combat the disease.

That, he said, included a comprehensive life course approach based on the mode of transmission of the causative pathogen and the progression of the disease with a prolonged precancerous phase before progression to cancer.

He said the country’s efforts targeted HPV vaccination.

He said the package included building partnerships, creating awareness, sensitising communities, and political advocacy on the need to vaccinate young girls before 15 years, with 70 to 90 per cent of the target populations being fully vaccinated.

“While we continue to work assiduously through the Expanded Programme on Immunisation of the Ghana Health Service and other partners to introduce HPV vaccine as part of routine immunisation, the HPV vaccines are also commercially available, and I encourage persons to patronise them to prevent cervical cancer,” Dr Kuma-Aboagye said.

Collaborative effort 

The Sales and Marketing Manager at Omni Diagnostic Ltd, Ibrahim Fuseini, said there was an urgent need for a collaborative effort among healthcare professionals, researchers and industry leaders to address the threats posed by the HPV in order to work towards an effective solution.

He said Omni Diagnostic Ltd was committed to being at the forefront of that endeavour as it aspired to contribute meaningfully to the ongoing global effort to combat the condition.

He said the centre was committed to collaborating with researchers to ensure the provision of safe, effective and high-quality laboratory services to support their investigations, diagnosis, management and treatment of cervical cancer, as well as the handling of the virus.