Association of Pax Mondo donates cervical cancer equipment to KATH

Accra, Sept. 15, GNA – Association of Pax Mondo, an Italian NGO on Thursday donated cervical cancer screening equipment to the Ministry of Health to help women know their status and save their lives.

The screening equipment valued at 40,000 dollars is for Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi to help address the cancer spread so that after going through life threatening child delivery processes, women would not have to suffer the brunt of other life threatening diseases such as cervical cancer.

Minister of Health, Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh commended the donors and noted that government had plans to purchase more of such equipment to save women who were dying because of late detection.

Mr Tony Iwobi, President of the Association said personnel at KATH had already been trained to handle the equipment to facilitate screening of women.

Cervical cancer is the most common women’s affliction in Sub-Saharan Africa and the third most common ailment in women with 530,000 new cases and 275,000 deaths each year.

About 80-90 per cent of women in the Region have never had a pelvic examination with more than 85 per cent of the global burden of cervical cancer occurring in developing countries, yet the World Health Organisation estimates that fewer than five per cent of these women have access to screening even once in a lifetime.

Tragically, when many women discover they have cervical cancer it is often too late – and cannot be treated successfully. That is unacceptable, especially when a simple, easy solution exists to screen women.

More than 60 years ago, a doctor from Cornell University discovered that precancerous cells from the cervix could be identified before they turned lethal.

The finding revolutionised the screening and treatment of cervical cancer.

Dr George Papanicolaou’s "Pap" test became routine for women and within two decades, deaths from cervical cancer in the United States decreased dramatically – a reduction of 74 per cent.