National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) chief Dr NK Arora said on Tuesday that cervical cancer is manageable if the disease is diagnosed early. The NTAGI chief also said that screening to detect cervical cancer is important after the age of 35. He added that the screening needs to be taken as a mission as “India has the largest burden of deaths due to cervical cancer.”
Speaking to the news agency ANI, Dr NK Arora said, “Cervical cancer is curable with human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. We hope India will soon be able to provide HPV vaccine for girls from 9-14 years in a national program.”
“Screening for the cervical disease after the age of 35 years is important, early diagnosis is manageable at PHC. Screening needs to be taken as a mission. India has the largest burden of death due to cervical cancer globally and almost 80,000 cases occur annually,” Dr NK Arora said on the HPV vaccine.
Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for South-East Asia, recently said that India will soon introduce the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem.
“Vaccination of girls against HPV, screening and treatment of pre-cancer lesions, and improved access to diagnosis and treatment of invasive cancers are critical, cost-effective measures that policymakers should urgently apply to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem,” the WHO regional director said.
So far, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand have introduced nationwide HPV vaccination to treat cervical cancer. The WHO regional director said Bangladesh, India and Timor-Leste will soon introduce the vaccine against cerical cancer.
“HPV vaccination has been introduced in several provinces of Indonesia, protecting tens of millions of girls,” she said.
Globally, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women, with an estimated 604,000 new cases and 342,000 deaths in 2020, of which the Region accounted for 32 per cent and 34 per cent, respectively.
(With agency inputs)
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