Volta Regional Hospital needs Pap test facility – Expert
Mr Harry Akuaku, a US-based healthcare professional, on Wednesday called on Ghana Government to provide the Volta Regional Hospital with a Pap test facility to curb the increasing number of women dying of cervical cancer.
He said the Hospital also needed to take giant steps in the provision of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) DNA test and Gardasil vaccination services to prevent the insurgence of the condition, which predisposed people to many mainly sexually transmitted diseases.
Mr Akuaku said this at a free medical outreach organized by a team of Tanyigbe citizens in the US and Canada at Tanyigbe in the Ho Municipal area.
It was on the theme: “Cervical Cancer is a Preventable Disease” and meant to mark this year’s Yam Festival celebration of the chiefs and people of Tanyigbe traditional area.
He described as unacceptable the situation where management and treatment of cervical cancer was only being done at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and said it undermined the campaign against the disease.
“How can our aging and very old mothers travel every week to Korle-Bu (hospital) when they can be treated at their backyards,” he asked.
Mr Akuaku said government needed to demonstrate more commitment to fighting the disease and saving women, saying that must be done in the not too distant future.
“At least there should be cervical cancer centres in every region,” he stated.
About 300 people were screened for hypertension, diabetes and glaucoma, some given medications and others referred.
Cervical cancer is said to be the most common women’s affliction in Sub-Saharan Africa and the third most common ailment in females, with 530,000 new cases and 275,000 deaths each year in the region.
About 80-90 per cent of women in the Region are said never to have had a pelvic examination and more than 85 per cent of the global burden of cervical cancer occurs in developing countries.
The World Health Organization is however reported to estimate that fewer than five per cent of these women have access to screening even once in a lifetime.
Source: GNA