IBADAN – The wife of the Oyo State governor, Mrs Florence Ajimobi, says her Access to Basic Medical Care (ABC) Foundation has commenced free cervical screening of women in the state.
Ajimobi said this on Thursday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan.
She said the screening exercise would be held in all the 33 local government areas of the state.
The governor’s wife said the exercise was to encourage women to go for medical checkup in order to detect any incidence of cancer early.
Ajimobi said that more than 1,000 women would be screened at the end of the programme. [eap_ad_2] “Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in Nigerian affecting women in their productive years.
“ Nigeria is among the top five countries worldwide with the highest disease burden.
“ Twenty six women die daily from infection with some types of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) which is what we will be screening women for.
“The HPV is linked with about 90 percent of cervical cancer cases.
“Screening programmes for early detection have greatly reduced the incidence and death associated with this disease in developed countries.
“However, challenges such as poor screening facilities, lack of organised national screening programmes and lack of specialised staff are responsible for increase in the occurrence of this disease in Nigeria,” she said.
According to Ajimobi, cancer incidence is projected to double by 2020 and with the challenges faced in providing adequate and quality secondary health care, the importance of prevention and early detection cannot be over-emphasised.
“If we increase our focus on cervical screening, our women can be saved from suffering and dying needlessly.
“The Access to Basic Medical Care Foundation is fully equipped with the revolutionary state of the art Roche Cobas 4800 HPV screening and genotyping machine.
“The machine is used to detect up to 14 different genotypes which includes the two types majorly associated with cervical cancer.
“This machine, which was recently approved by the American FDA for use in primary screening for cervical cancer, is the latest advancement,” she said.
NAN recalls that ABC Foundation was established in April 2013 to provide free health care services. (NAN) [eap_ad_3]
