Cervical Cancer assumes a global health crisis

The Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) has joined global efforts to combat cervical cancer, which has now assumed a health crisis impacting women and their families across the world, especially in low-resource settings, including Ghana.

CDA Consult, which is a development communication advocacy non-governmental organisation based in Tema, [email protected], indicated during the commemoration of the 2024 Cancer Awareness Month advocacy that in 2020, an estimated 604,237 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer globally, representing 6.5 percent of all female cancers.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) data, cervical cancer is the most common cancer among women in 36 low- and middle-income countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Speaking on the need for global and national action to combat cervical cancer, Mr. Francis Ameyibor, Executive Director of CDA Consult, said CDA Consult is embarking on a Cervical Cancer Prevention Change Paradigm Advocacy campaign.

He said the CDA Consult Cervical Cancer Prevention Change Paradigm Advocacy campaign also seeks to champion free cervical cancer vaccination and scale up prevention, detection, and treatment towards the elimination of cervical cancer in Ghana, anchored on responsive communication as a weapon for attitudinal change advocacy for mass voluntary vaccination and encouragement for a healthy lifestyle.

He said the CDA Consult Cervical Cancer Prevention Change Paradigm Advocacy campaign also seeks to achieve maximum impact by demystifying the myth surrounding cervical cancer vaccination, screening, and treatment.

He said the CDA Consult Cervical Cancer Change Paradigm Advocacy also hinges on both primary prevention (focused on people who are non-reactive) as well as prevention, detection, and treatment in the country.

The CDA Consult Cervical Cancer Change Paradigm Advocacy is also targeted towards mobilising funding investment in HPV vaccine programming in low- and lower-middle-income communities in Ghana.

Mr. Ameyibor noted that the advocacy also aims at policy change and capacity-strengthening initiatives, which would focus on training and elevating the status of community health workers and outreach workers' capacity to deliver integrated services.

“Screening and treatment programmes must be accessible and relevant to adolescents and young people since they have distinct health-care, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and educational, developmental, and psychosocial needs,” Mr. Ameyibor noted.

He also noted the pain-taking work by Sung, Hyuna & Ferlay, Jacques & Siegel, Rebecca & Laversanne, Mathieu & Soerjomataram, Isabelle & Jemal, Ahmedin & Bray, and Freddie. (2021). Global Cancer Statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN Estimates of Incidence and Mortality Worldwide for 36 Cancers in 185 Countries indicates that cervical cancer killed an estimated 341,843 women in 2020.

The data indicates that 90 percent of them were in less-developed regions of the world, where access to prevention, screening, and treatment services is severely limited.

Mr. Ameyibor stated that global efforts demonstrate that more women die from cervical cancer than during childbirth.

The CDA Consult Executive Director stated that global statistics show that the chances of dying from cervical cancer are equivalent to those of contracting Ebola.

"A woman with cervical cancer is about twice as likely to die as a woman with breast cancer. A woman living with HIV has a sixfold higher risk of developing cervical cancer than her HIV-negative counterparts," Mr. Ameyibor stated.

The CDA Consult Executive Director stressed that these awful numbers are genuine. So are the solutions. “We can eliminate the global epidemic in a generation if more people have access to HPV vaccines as well as cervical cancer screening and treatment, but there aren't enough resources for these vital programmes.”

Mr. Ameyibor commended the Biden Cancer Moonshot, TogetHER for Health, as well as the World Health Organisation and other global and national stakeholders who have been fighting against cervical cancer.

The CDA Consult Executive Director also applauded all those who participated in a panel discussion organised by the Biden Cancer Moonshot in Washington last month, which was on the theme “United States Leadership to Drive Global Collaboration and Progress,” which focused on efforts to prevent and treat cervical cancer.

He said CDA Consult acknowledges the contributions of TogetHER for Health’s Executive Director, Dr. Heather White; Vanessa Bennett, Senior International Business Leader, Oncology Disease Area, Roche Diagnostics; and Dr. Satish Gopal, Director, Centre for Global Health, National Cancer Institute.

Others include Hannah Johnson, Programme Manager, Global Policy, George W. Bush Institute; Dr. Pavani Ram, Chief, Child Health and Immunisation Division, United States Agency for International Development (USAID); Dr. Kathleen Schmeler, Professor of Gynecologic Oncology; the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre; and Associate Vice President of Global Oncology for the MD Anderson Cancer Network.