This post is not about the actual diagnosis of cervical cancer, it is about reducing our risk! Nigeria has a population of 50.33 million women ages 15 years and older who are at risk of developing cervical cancer. Current estimates indicate that every year 14089 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 8240 die from it. This is huge! Cervical cancer ranks as the 2nd most frequent cancer among women in Nigeria and the 2nd most frequent cancer among women between 15 and 44 years of age. About 3.5% of women in the general population are estimated to harbour cervical HPV-16/18 infection at a given time, and 66.9% of invasive cervical cancers are attributed to HPVs 16 or 18.(hpvcentre.net). Data from different studies in Nigeria show that many women do not view cervical cancer as a a common disease and a lot of women view pap smears as only for the elite. Cervical cancer is on the rise but the screening uptake remains suboptimal. This is sad given that it is a highly ...
...Taking control of our health
