Jubilee Post News & Views
On the occasion of International Women’s day, Grace cancer foundation, Vignan University and Collective Power of One International USA , have become the new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title holders for the Largest Cervical Cancer awareness lesson to raise awareness for Cervical cCancer.
It is a proud moment for the state of Andhra Pradesh as such a prestigious event has taken place on 18th March at VFSTR University ,Vadlamudi, Guntur.
The Cervical Cancer awareness lesson was conducted for 4999 participants. Awareness was created for Cervical Cancer and prevention of Cervical cancer. This was conducted under single roof and this is the largest simultaneous Cervical Cancer awareness lesson ever in the world. The previous record for the same was for about 1919 people .
Around the world, a woman dies from cervical cancer every two minutes. Without action, cervical cancer deaths will almost certainly rise a further 50% by 2030.
Nine out of 10 deaths occur in low and lower-middle-income countries. In high income countries, girls have the opportunity to be vaccinated against the hHuman pPapilloma vVirus (HPV) and women are screened regularly and treated early for any pre-cancerous lesions – two important preventive measures of cervical cancer.
As a result, up to 90% of cervical cancers can be prevented. In contrast, there is limited access to prevention and early detection in low- to middle-income countries. However, even with screening programmers in place, 55% of low-income countries lack access to radiotherapy and surgery services, which are critical in treating cervical cancer successfully.
With the global commitment to eliminate cervical cancer made in 2020, world leaders have set us on a path to elimination. However, this audacious vision cannot be achieved by half-measures. Today, we need the full commitment to national action and success.
Senior Oncologists from India and USA will be participating in this event. CPOI an NGO based at Houston, USA is partnering with Grace foundation along with Vignan uUniversity.
Among women, Breast and cervical cancers tops the list which, if detected at an early stage, can be easily cured. However, lack of awareness is disturbing.
“India has one of the highest number of Cervical cancers in the world with 75,000 to 80,000 new cases every year Lack of awareness and access to Vaccination are important causes,” said Mr Lavu Krishna Devarayaulu, Member of pParliament, Narsaraopet.
An end to cervical cancer is within our sight. Cervical cancer is a highly preventable and curable disease – everyone should have access to the necessary prevention, screening and treatment that save lives said Dr. Chinnababu Sunkavalli, Robotic Surgical Oncologist and Clinical director at Yashoda Hospitals, Hitec city .
“Every visit to a provider can be an opportunity to prevent cervical cancer by making sure women are referred for screening appropriately,” “We must increase our efforts to make sure that all women understand the importance of getting screened for cervical cancer. No woman should die from cervical cancer. “said Dr Sathya Kalangi, CEO, Collective Power of oOne International, Houston, Texas, USA.
It is high time that we focus on these preventable diseases and create more awareness to the public at large. Simple screening methods like Mammography, oral examination, chest x ray and Pap smear will go a long way in early detection and cure.
Another important aspect of cervical cancer is that a preventive vaccine is available for HPV infection which is the root cause of this disease.
Why this Event?
- Nearly 600,000 new cervical cancer cases are diagnosed every year
- Every one minute, a woman is diagnosed with cervical cancer
- Devastatingly, over 300,000 women each year die from cervical cancer
- Globally, every two minutes, a woman dies from cervical cancer
- Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women in over 40 countries
- Around 90% of all cervical cancer deaths occur in low- to middle-income countries.
- One woman dies of cervical cancer every 8 minutes in India.
For cervical cancer, Simple test like Pap smear can detect disease very early even before the onset of actual symptoms.
Despite evidence that cervical cancer screening saves lives, there is no active participation from public due to lack of awareness. More than half of new cervical cancer cases occur among women who have never or rarely been screened. Nearly 71,000 Indian women die every year of cervical cancer and if screening for the disease is not taken up on a large scale, the number might go up to a million.
Early diagnosis is the key to prevention of these unfortunate deaths. About 70 per cent of women are diagnosed with it in the third or fourth stage of cancer. The Human Papillomavirus (HPV), the root cause of the cancer, is present in the genital tracts for years. About 90 per cent of infections caused by it are resolved without any ill effects and the remaining may lead to cervical cancer.
The only way to prevent this is to conduct large-scale screening camps and create awareness, further emphasizing that keeping the screening at low cost or at no cost would invite large participation from women. It is better for women between 25 to 30 years of age to get screened and if detected they can be easily cured. The cancer is affecting women more in the age group of 40 to 64 years. The efforts to prevent this are almost nil and less than 2% of Indian women are screened for cervical cancer.
