Dr Kaseba calls for early cervical cancer screening

Dr Kaseba calls for early cervical cancer screening
By Namatama Mundia
Sun 17 June 2012, 13:24 CAT

FIRST lady Dr Christine Kaseba says Zambia's cervical cancer cases rank second highest in the world.

In a speech read for her by health minister Dr Joseph Kasonde at the launch of the stop cervical cancer conference in Africa at Matero Referral Health Centre in Lusaka on Friday, Dr Kaseba said many people have lost relatives to cancer, a condition which if detected early could be cured and also prevented if people are screened regularly.

She advised men to support women in their homes and communities by encouraging them to screen for both cervical and breast cancers which were on the increase saying that this was the procedure that could prevent women from developing advanced cancer.

"This is because if the cancer is caught early, we can prevent the precancerous lesions from being cancerous or deadly," Dr Kaseba said.

She said the government had clearly articulated in the Sixth National Development Plan that diseases in the category of cancers and non-communicable diseases would receive due attention so that there is equity of access to affordable, cost-effective and quality health services to address them as close to the people as possible.

Dr Kaseba, herself a medical doctor, said cervical cancer screening services were available in many centres in the public sector but were not enough.

"As a result, the government has put together an ambitious plan to scale up these services to you all within the next five years with support from cooperating partners," she said.

Dr Kaseba said the government was currently in the process of adopting a programme for preventing infection with human papiloma virus, which was a known agent for causing cervical cancer.

"This programme involves vaccination of young women who are not yet sexually active so that the chances of them getting infected with the virus are reduced, thereby also reducing the chances of acquiring cervical cancer," she said.

And a cervical cancer survivor Loyce Mwale said she was diagnosed with the disease when it was in stage Two B but that she received treatment and was now fine.

She advised women to be screened because the disease is curable when detected early.