Women have been advised to go for regular cervical cancer screening to aid early detection and treatment. A consultant gynecologist with the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, Dr. Ndileziga Dimkpa gave the admonition in an interview with journalists in Port Harcourt. Dr. Dimkpa described cervical cancer as cancer that occurs in the cervix region which is the opening to the womb that is caused by human papilloma virus, HPV.
According to him six hundred thousand women are diagnosed with the disease annually and it is the cause of three hundred thousand cancer related deaths worldwide. Dr Dimkpa who stated that the ailment is common in sub- sahara Africa listed smoking, and the act of giving birth to many children as one of the risk factors.
“Every woman can develop cervical cancer but high risk women include those women that engage in sexual activity early between the ages of thirteen and fourteen also women with multiple sexual partner”, he said. Dr. Dimkpa called on women between the ages of thirty to fifty-five to avail themselves of the opportunity offered by the authority to protect themselves of cervical
cancer.
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“The World Health Organisation recommend that screening should start from women at the age of thirty and those that are HIV positive, their screening should start from the age of twenty- five because they have weak immunity. Why that age?
The screening is for every woman if that woman is HIV positive screening should be done every year but other women can do it between three to five years. Now the tendency is that there is a very high chance to detect the virus or at pre investive cancer stage. Then several things can be done to eliminate it”, he added. The obstetrician stated that cervical cancer is not contagious dismissing superstitions some people hold about the disease.
