The Ghana Muslim Mission Women’s Fellowship in collaboration with Al-Hayaat Foundation, an NGO that promotes healthy lifestyles has organised a workshop in Accra to educate members on the prevention of cervical cancer.
It was to enlighten members on the dangers of cervical cancer when not detected at an early stage.
Dr Abdul Rashid Adams, Cytotechnologist, Department of Pathology, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, said cervical cancer is the second most
common cancer among women in the world, with about 500,000 new cases diagnosed and 250,000 deaths each year.
He said symptoms of the disease only appeared during an advance stage and invades deeper into the cervix and surrounding tissues,
which might take longer time for the cancer to develop, and commonly found in women between 35-55 years.
“Abnormal vagina bleeding including post coital bleeding, pain during sexual intercourse, pelvic pains, heavy vaginal discharge, which may be smelly were some common symptoms of cervical cancer,” he said.
Dr Adam noted that the disease caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) affected only women, who had ever been sexually active, smoking, had many sex partners, early sex, family history, multiple births, and used oral contraceptives.
He said the advanced stages of cervical cancer when symptoms had developed were very difficult to treat, whereas if detected at an
early pre-cancerous stage was almost always curable.
Dr Adams, therefore, urged all women to try as much as possible to have regular cervical cancer screening at least within every three
to five years, in order to help to reduce the number of women who suffered and die from the disease annually.
Hajia Mariama Obeng, National President of the Fellowship, said the workshop was part of their quarterly programmes, organised periodically to educate members on various issues including health.
She said the disease had been identified as one of the silent killers amongst women in Africa, and much needed be done by all women
to help to eliminate the disease completely.
Hajia Obeng called on the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to endeavour to include the screening of cervical cancer onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to make it easier for women.