Nowadays, cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that about 570 000 cases of cervical cancer and about 300 000 deaths occur each year. Cervical cancer is the fourth most common type of cancer in women, ranking after breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and lung cancer.
Cervical cancer occurs in the cervix which is the lowest part of the uterus. The cause of cervical cancer is the human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common viral infection transmitted through sexual contact. It has several risk factors: for example, having multiple sexual partners, having weakened immune systems, starting to have sexual intercourse at an early age, having other sexual transmitted infections (gonorrhoea, syphilis, and HIV), and smoking. Cervical cancer continues to be a major public health problem affecting middle-aged women, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. In my opinion, cervical cancer will be curable if we detect it early and treat it adequately. Awareness of cervical cancer is the most important issue in women’s health.
First of all, the communication skills between physician and patient are crucial. The knowledge of cervical cancer is needed to reconnect to those who misunderstood and gently guide them back to the right concept. For instance, include information about the benefits of vaccination and disadvantages of refusing vaccination in movies, TV series or advertisements to help those people realise the danger of this disease.
Cervical cancer screening including the Pap test and HPV test is also an important undertaking among women. On the other hand, the rate of cervical cancer screening is inclined to decrease because many women feel embarrassed about getting a Pap test regularly. Consequently, it reduces the chance to be monitored and treated for cervical cancer in early stages. We should ensure low-cost approaches to good screening and treating cervical cancer are available for women who are living in remote areas. There is a need to decentralise cervical cancer screening through mobile clinics and establish screening centres in rural areas. We could encourage donations for free HPV vaccination campaigns to convince women to get vaccinated. Furthermore, the school should initiate educational discussion about cervical cancer and provide school vaccine programmes to persuade parents to get HPV vaccine for 11- to 12-year-old children.
Moreover, practising safe sex by limiting the number of sexual partners and using condoms can help to protect against HPV infection. According to most sexually transmitted diseases, men are implicated in the epidemiology chain of the infection by sexual contacts with women who are prostitutes. This can play an important role in HPV transmission. Therefore, male partners may markedly contribute to develop cervical cancer in their female partners and penile cancer in themselves.
In conclusion, cervical cancer can be prevented if everyone cooperates in awareness. Not only should this be the role of women to be concerned about this disease, men can also take part to diminish the prevalence, morbidity, and mortality. HPV vaccine, cervical cancer screening test, and safe sexual behaviours remain the mainstay for cervical cancer prevention and control in order to improve the quality of women’s lives.
Reference:
- World Health organization (WHO). Cervical cancer [Internet]. [cited 4 February 2021]. Available from: https://www.who.int/health-topics/cervical-cancer#tab=tab_1
- GLOBOCAN 2020: New Global Cancer Data [Internet]. 2020 [cited 4 February 2021]. Available from: https://www.uicc.org/news/globocan-2020-new-global-cancer-data
- Cervical cancer [Internet]. 2019 [cited 4 February 2021]. Available from: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cervical-cancer/symptoms-causes/syc-20352501