VVA calls on governments, partners to prioritise cervical cancer

The Executive Director of Vital Voices for Africa (VVA) has highlighted that the biggest challenge for women with regards to cervical cancer screening, is the fact that they must expose their vagina to medical practitioners, whom in most cases, are men.

Caleb Ayong was speaking during a webinar on 17 August 2024, titled: “Cervical cancer: changing perceptions and perspectives to beat stigma,” where he was the main facilitator. Organised by Being Africa, the event dubbed #HerReasonForBeing is a weekly X space bringing together stakeholders to discuss women’s health with relation to cancers.

Added to this challenge, according to Caleb, are several other factors including inaccurate knowledge of cervical cancer, socio-cultural norms, poorly behaved healthcare professionals, that cause people to stigmatise cervical cancer patients

Speaking during the event, Kenya based Dr. David Ruiru, a Gynaecologist Oncologist, lamented the fact that most cases of cervical cancer are only detected when they are already at a later stage, where it is too late to be treated. He noted that screening for cervical cancer once every two years is the best way to detect the disease early enough for treatment. Dr Ruiru highlighted the pap smear, and the more expensive but self-applied HPV DNA as the only two available tests for cervical cancer.

Speaking after that, the VVA Executive Director stressed the need to render cervical cancer screening less intrusive, and more available and affordable. He called on African governments and development partners to prioritise cervical cancer prevention, control and treatment, as it was universally agreed that cervical cancer can be eradicated. “I call on governments, international donors and development partners to take it upon themselves to make the eradication of cervical cancer a priority. It can be done, but it’s not a priority. That’s the problem.” said Caleb. “I think if we invest in making cervical cancer screening more user-friendly, and less intrusive, it could really help get many more people, many more women, screened across the continent. Once we can get more women screened, it means we’ll be able to identify cervical cancer at an early stage in most cases, and the automatic result will be that we’ll have fewer cases where the disease reaches an advanced stage.” he added.

The #HerReasonForBeing webinar holds every Wednesday on X beginning at 4:30pm GMT.

Listen to the webinar below.