Underage girls vulnerable to cervical cancer
ABOUT 2,797 women including girls are diagnosed with cervical cancer in Ghana every year, out of which 1,699 die.
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Girls as young as 10 years are vulnerable to the disease which is spreading at an alarming rate nowadays, some of them develop fast, start menstruating and become sexually active at tender ages.
The Director of Health Service at the Ho Technical University (HTU), Dr Redeemer S. Fiebor, disclosed this to the Daily Graphic during a free cervical cancer screening at the school’s campus on Wednesday.
The exercise was organised by the Gender Affairs Office and the Health Directorate of HTU in collaboration with the Volta Regional Directorate of Health and the Ho Municipal Directorate of Health.
The two-day exercise was targeted at 300 women in the Ho Municipality, and according to Dr Fiebor, the best way to curb the trend was to get tested for cervical cancer and prevent its spread.
Dr. Fiebor said cervical cancer could be treated once it was detected early.
Threat to men
He entreated men to encourage their wives or partners to screen for cervical cancer, explaining that it could pose serious threats of other forms of cancer to men as well through sex.
This is because the HPV virus which causes cervical cancer could be passed onto men during sex and that could result in penal cancer, Dr Fiebor added.
Apart from that, he said, the virus could also cause oral and throat cancer in men since some men perform oral sex on their partners.
Dr Fiebor made it clear that the use of condoms did not guarantee full protection against cervical cancer in women or other forms of cancer in men because some of those devices could tear during the sexual act, and there was no protective devise against the transmission of the virus during oral sex.
However, Dr Fiebor pointed out that early detection of the cancer guaranteed early treatment, for which reason voluntary screening was vital.
Good public response
The Gender Affairs Officer of HTU, Dr Liticia Effah-Manu, said public response to the two-day exercise was encouraging.
As at 1p.m., she said, 32 women had already been screened while 80 had registered to be screened, with more women arriving at the HTU Clinic for that purpose.
Dr Effah-Manu said cervical cancer was the second most dangerous cancer, killing women across the globe after breast cancer because many women were reluctant to take part in the screening.
She said the exercise was part of HTU’s social inclusion programme which was one of the core values of the university.