A candlelight vigil was held on the lawns of Public Buildings on Wednesday to raise awareness about cervical cancer and the importance of early detection.
The event was organised by the Health Ministry as part of its Cervical Cancer Awareness month of activities, being observed under the theme “Early Detection Saves Lives,” the Government information Agency (GINA) reported.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, Minister of Health Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Shamdeo Persaud, Chairperson of the Women and Gender Equality Commission Indra Chandarpal, students of the Guyana School of Nursing and members of civil society attended the vigil.
Hinds spoke of the significant investments that government has made in the health sector to improve the physical infrastructure, to acquire medication and train medical personnel.
“We have been paying much attention to improving ways of detecting and treating cancer,” he was also quoted by GINA as saying, while highlighting the provision of equipment at the Cancer Treatment Centre at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. He stressed the importance of persons getting tested for the chronic non-communicable disease if the investment is to have impact. “As we all know and as we have been told, early detection is one of the best ways to cure cancer,” he added.
Minister Ramsaran, in his remarks, said that cervical cancer is the number one cause of cancer deaths among Guyanese women, followed by breast cancer.
He said, “This activity is geared not only at lighting the candle to remember who we lost, but lighting a candle to show that life goes on, and that there is a shining example of what we can do in the future, what we can achieve with this sacrifice, with study developed with academia like VIA testing.”
According to GINA, the Chief Medical Officer said that as the Ministry of Health prepared its new plan for the next period until 2020. He added that it identified chronic non-communicable diseases as a main challenge and, of these diseases, cervical cancer has emerged as one of the areas that the ministry can make an impact. Early screening identifies people who have a risk to develop cancer and some intervention can be done early enough to prevent the cancer from occurring.
Dr Persaud also advocated that young girls from age 11 years old be given the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine to prevent against developing cancer, long before they become sexually active.
GINA said that Visual Inspection Using Acetic Acid (VIA) is basically the use of table acetic acid which when applied to the cervix causes a reaction that enables the medical personnel to diagnose cancer. The use of the VIA screening method has proven over time to be cost effective, timely and convenient in that the service can be taken to the people instead of the people going to the health facility. Since its introduction in 2007, over 25 sites have been established at the various health institutions throughout the country.
