35 cases of cervical cancer identified a year

Around 35 new cases of cervical cancer are identified in Cyprus every year, Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou said on Tuesday as the European Week on Prevention of Cervical Cancer is marked.
The aim of the ministry is to make the vaccination possible for all, he said.

Since 2016 5,000 girls in the first and second years of high school have been vaccinated. In the school year from 2018 to 2019 these free vaccinations will continue, he added.

“The plans of the ministry of health are to extend the programme to other age groups, ultimately aiming for universal vaccination to drastically reduce cervical cancer for the next decade,” he said.

To promote prevention and relieve waiting lists, the ministry has referred 4,340 women aged 25 to 60 to the private sector for a Pap test, while in the public sector 6,333 women were tested.

According to the World Health Organisation, cervical cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer in women with an estimated 570,000 new cases in 2018 representing 6.6 per cent of all female cancers.
Ioannou said at the European level, of the 60,000 women diagnosed with cancer of the cervix, about 30,000 die.

“These figures at the global, European and national levels are admittedly large, but reversible, as they exist mainly because women are not aware of preventive interventions that they can look for in order to detect any problems in time. Considering that cervical cancer needs about 10 years to develop, the need to promote prevention is once again confirmed, where evidence can lead to an early diagnosis, a correct treatment of the disease and increased survival rates,” he said.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.