THE VACCINE against the sexually transmitted virus that causes the most cases of cervical cancer should be given to young girls as part of a national cancer screening programme, DISY deputy Stella Kyriakides said yesterday.
“We need to incorporate the fight against cervical cancer into our national strategy for cancer. We must set up cervical cancer screening programmes, using as a basis the knowledge and experience we have gained from the breast cancer screening programme,” she said.
“At the same time we must move forward with raising awareness regarding the importance of vaccinations. This needs to be done through the Ministries of Education and Health, and not occasionally which is what happens today.”
Kyriakides issued a press release following last week’s European Cervical Cancer Summit in Brussels.
Every year 500,000 women around the globe are diagnosed with cervical cancer and over 270,000 die from it. It the second most common type of cancer in women after breast cancer.
“Cervical cancer is the second cause of death in women worldwide,” Kyriakides said.
The DISY deputy referred to a European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control report that Merck’s Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix vaccines could best help reduce cervical cancer when used with cervical cancer screening programmes.
“The new vaccine against HPV promises to prevent almost 70 per cent of cervical cancer cases,” she said.
The vaccine protects against human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes the vast majority of cervical cancer cases.
Kyriakides said over 83 per cent of cervical cancer cases and deaths concerned countries with limited access to population screening programmes and treatment.
“In countries with effective cervical cancer screening programmes, the disease’s frequency has significantly reduced.”
She said there was the need for a systematic awareness programme targeting teenagers about how to avoid cancers related to HPV. The DISY deputy said this would lead to the vaccination of 12-year-old girls.
She it was also important to deal with possible parental prejudices that associated the vaccination with concerns that it signalled the start of teenagers’ sexual activity.
The EU report, requested by the European Commission and several member states, recommended girls receive the vaccine between 12 and 15 years, and said delivering the vaccines in schools would probably be the most cost-effective option.
Kyriakides said five EU countries including the UK, France, Germany, Austria and Italy had already introduced the vaccination into their national health programmes and seven others were recommending it.
The DISY deputy urged the government to take advantage of EU Structural Funds to improve the island’s cancer treatment services and set up cancer screening programmes.
“Unfortunately these funds have not been utilised to implement specific programmes in Cyprus. In other countries, for breast cancer, the EU structural funds have been employed to set up breast centres,” she said.
The result of this under utilisation meant the island continually faces problems and has difficulty in the correct implementation of early diagnosis and prevention programmes regarding the two types of cancer that predominantly affect women, she said.
The organised initiative of women’s organisations and NGOs to exert pressure for the utilisation of EU resources on breast and cervical cancer would be one of the best ways to celebrate this year’s Women’s Day, Kyriakides concluded.
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