| No images? Click here  8 February 2021 Moving from awareness to action to eliminate cervical cancerIn January, Cervical Cancer Awareness Month offered opportunities to leverage the upsurge of momentum from last year’s launch of our Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer, the world’s first-ever commitment to eliminating a cancer. In a series of activities that took place through Cervical Cancer Awareness Month and in the run up to World Cancer Day (4 February), partners around the world continued to advocate with WHO for the elimination of cervical cancer.  During our first #TealTalk on Twitter, we convened patient advocates, policymakers, scientists, organizations and partners to share survivor stories, provide educational resources, spotlight disparities and discuss barriers to care. I also had the pleasure to participate in a special focus dialogue on cervical cancer elimination, hosted by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) in partnership with Jhpiego. You can watch the dialogue here. Eliminating cervical cancer is not a dream – it is a very plausible reality. But awareness alone will not bring about the impactful movement required to accomplish this. It is time to drive change and commit to progress through action. Following the launch of the Global Strategy, stakeholders around the world pledged to fight cervical cancer through prevention, detection, timely management and care. Read below to learn more about what some communities are doing to advance toward elimination. It’s time for us all to step up and take concerted and sustainable actions. If you would like to share with us how you are taking action to eliminate cervical cancer in your community, we would love to hear from you. You can let us know here. You can also participate in the movement online by using our *NEW* communications toolkit. Be sure to follow me on Twitter @DrNonoSimelela for more news and information about eliminating cervical cancer. If you have any friends or colleagues who are interested in learning more about our work, please share this newsletter with them. Anyone can sign up to receive monthly updates here. Together we can take action to make the world free of cervical cancer and give all women the chance at a healthy, dignified life. Thank you, Dr Nono Simelela Basotho march to join the world in official launch of Global Strategy for the elimination of cervical cancer Cervical cancer survivor ‘Madaemane Tsunyane (front row, fourth from the left) with event leaders and marchers on November 17, 2020 With the launch of the global strategy, the Kingdom of Lesotho is mobilizing to eliminate cervical cancer! Joining the global day of action on November 17, 2020, Lesotho’s Queen, Her Majesty ‘Masenate Mohato Bereng Seeiso, kicked off a march through Maseru, as Basotho showed their resolve to set the country on a path toward elimination. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the march was limited to healthcare workers, cancer survivors, media representatives and representatives from different partners of the Ministry of Health. The Minister of Health, Honorable Motlatsi Maqelepo, also led the marchers, as they proceeded from the Ministry’s headquarters to Pioneer Mall Shopping Centre, where leaders and organizers shared information about cervical cancer. Healthcare workers encouraged women to get screened and distributed literacy materials to educate people about the disease. After the match, a 53-year-old cervical cancer survivor, ‘Madaemane Tsunyane, shared how she felt about the historic moment. Tsuyane said she endured advanced cancer symptoms because she had not been aware of screening services and had lacked knowledge about the disease and its symptoms. Tsunyane thanked the health care workers and the government for assisting her with treatment. Today, she said, she is a living example that if cervical cancer is detected in time, it can be cured. Upon her healing, Tsuyane decided to educate other women on cervical cancer symptoms and encourage them to go for screening. Addressing the world virtually during the global launch, the Queen indicated that, in Lesotho, cervical cancer is the most common cancer among women and accounts for about 44% of all cancer cases in the country. She noted, “in 2018, Lesotho reported an incidence of cervical cancer of 52.1 per 100,000 women population and a mortality rate of 39.1,” adding that in 2014, only 11% of women were screened for cervical cancer. She stated that one of the most significant impacts of cervical cancer is on poverty, education and gender inequity. Many of the women who die of cervical cancer are the main source of income for their families. Her Majesty announced that Lesotho is planning for national re-introduction of the HPV vaccine for nine- to fourteen-year-old girls in 2022. Moreover, she shared that screening services are now available at all health facilities in the country. In his remarks, Honourable Minister Maqelepo emphasized that “women living with HIV are far more vulnerable to cervical cancer. Their risk of persistent HPV infection is several folds higher than women who are HIV negative. Women living with both HIV and cervical cancer often face double stigma.” He noted that the intersection of the two diseases remains a big challenge for a country like Lesotho, so hard hit by the HIV epidemic. Maqelepo announced the ministry of health’s committment to the 90-70-90 targets in the global strategy. “Lesotho is now positioned to take-action and significantly reduce the burden of cervical cancer together with the promising technologies, health products and delivery models that are increasingly available. The time for cervical cancer elimination is now.”  Queen Masenate Mohato Bereng Seeiso kicking off the march on November 17, 2020 Scaling up health services to reach remote communities in Guatemala Guatemala’s honorable Minister of Health, Dra. Amelia Flores, joined the launch of the Global Strategy by sharing how Guatemala is working towards integrated service delivery models for vaccination and high-quality cervical cancer screening, inclusive of culturally–sensitive counseling and effective, timely treatment over the past five years. The Ministry of Health has pledged to expand the use of HPV testing. The ministry’s effort will include self-testing, to improve access among women living in the most remote communities. Testing will be implemented together with improved treatment technologies, such as thermal ablation for precancerous lesions, in all health districts in at least 30 sites across the country, with support, training and supplies from Unitaid and the "SUCCESS” Project (Scale Up Cervical Cancer Elimination with Secondary prevention Strategy). Monitoring and evaluation of performance will be carried out through the Ministry’s information system, known as SIGSA. In addition, a cancer technical group has been organized, with representation from government, academia and civil society. In 2020, the group updated evidence-based “Guidelines for the detection and treatment of cervical cancer.” In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, a virtual approach to cervical cancer prevention training has also begun to take place on a monthly basis. Strengthening early detection of cervical cancer in Sri LankaThe Rotary Club of Colombo, Sri Lanka has launched the second phase of its Cervical Cancer Elimination Project in 2019, in partnership with the country’s Ministry of Health, funded by a grant from The Rotary Foundation. Whilst the Ministry has undertaken the HPV vaccination of 10-11 year old girls and reports around 80% coverage to date, Rotary is strengthening the screening and early detection of cervical cancer in the target group of 35 year-old women with a recall at 45 years with HPV DNA testing. The facility, located in the main regional hospital in the North Central Province, facilitates greater reach to the surrounding provinces with an aim to increase coverage of the target group from below 50% to 80%.  Members of the Ministry of Health and Rotary Club sign an MOU marking their partnership on the Cervical Cancer Elimination Project on January 28, 2019 Further support of this initiative comes in the form of a training of trainers programme, developed in partnership with the Rotary Club of Birmingham, Alabama in the United States. By building capacity among midwives, who are the main contact point for the target group of women, the programme aims to increase the numbers of women screened. This will be further bolstered by a focused campaign to create awareness of early detection of cervical cancer and encourage women to visit clinics for screening. Two buses will also be provided to reach women in areas where accessibility to screening facilities is limited. Building community outreach to combat cervical cancer in the United States Photo credit: 16th Street Baptist Church Health and Wellness Ministry The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama describes itself as “a vessel of change in the United States since 1873.” The church’s Health and Wellness Ministry explains, “as the city’s first colored Baptist Church, this sacred space served as a meeting place, social center, and lecture hall for activities important to the lives of the city’s black citizens, as well as headquarters for meetings and rallies of the Civil Rights Movement.” Today, the church continues its outreach work in the effort to eliminate cervical cancer. Joining the launch of the Global Strategy, the team organized a webinar with Dr Groesbeck Parham, Co-Chair of the Director-General’s Expert Group on Cervical Cancer Elimination to discuss incidence, screening and treatment for cervical cancer. For Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, the group partnered with the University of Alabama’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement to distribute information about screening and vaccination in the Birmingham area. Their message to the world: “We heard the call to action and plan to do our part in making the vision of eliminating cervical cancer a reality.”  For the launch of the Global Strategy, the sanctuary of the church illuminated in teal, the colour of cervical cancer awareness Strengthening partnerships to eliminate cervical cancer in the Kyrgyz Republic Despite the COVID pandemic, the WHO Country Office of the Kyrgyz Republic has piloted the adapted protocol “PEN 4,” aimed at early detection of cervical (and breast) cancer at the primary health care level in several regions of the country, where cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women (Globocan 2020). The programme is being implemented as part of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)’s “Healthy Future” project in partnership with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The team’s initial findings have revealed a need for uniform standards for the diagnosis and treatment of precancerous conditions and for an effective referral system. To celebrate the launch of the Global Strategy, the Kyrgyz Republic’s Ministry of Health organized an on-line meeting on strengthening intra-country coordination, with the participation of experts from WHO and IARC. These discussions concluded that a cervical cancer-free generation is possible; if partners can join forces through strong international cooperation, this preventable disease can be beaten worldwide. Upcoming Events 16th – 19th February — IAEA International Conference on Advances in Radiation Oncology (ICARO3) WHO Resources Publication Highlights Latest Videos Cervical Cancer advocates and survivors launching a movement  Launch of the Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer  UICC Special Focus Dialogue – Cervical Cancer Elimination: A need for and driver of health convergence You are receiving this email because you are included on a WHO mailing list. If you have been forwarded this update you can click here to subscribe. |
Monday, February 8, 2021
WHO | Cervical Cancer Free Future Update
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment