lørdag 19. november 2016

Cervical cancer - serious, but treatable

We had the pleasure of having our friends Marit and Hans Olav visiting us earlier this month.  In addition to do the "vacation things", we wanted to utilize the expertise of Hans Olav as an experienced medical doctor.  We therefore scheduled a monitoring visit to one of the NCA supported projects with the headline "cervical cancer".

“Disease Relief through Excellent and Advanced Means” (DREAM) is a project of St Egidio community, supported by NCA.  DREAM has been deeply involved in HIV/AIDS work, but has also started important work to screen and offer early treatment of cervical cancer.  Malawi has the highest occurrence of cervical cancer in the world.  3,700 women are annually diagnosed, while more than 2,300 die every year.  Currently there are considerable gaps between the real occurrence of cervical cancer and the diagnosed cases.   Therefore much work needs to be done to carry out screening among women to detect cases.  If detected early, cervical cancer can be treated with simple methods.

The cervical cancer is mostly due to a virus infection.  The virus is spread through sexual activity, and linked with early sexual debut, multiple partners in combination of illnesses that weaken the immune system, including HIV/AIDS.

With this as background information we took off for Mangochi, just south of Lake Malawi.  DREAM had been conducted training for health workers in screening of cervical cancer and in counselling women with positive diagnosis.  We joined the thirteen participants as they entered into their last session with sharing their experiences and learning.  

Nurse Florence is sharing her experiences from the training

 The trainees came from three districts in the southern region of the country with the highest number of HIV/AIDS cases and cervical cancer diagnoses.  They work in health clinics, partly in hard to reach areas.  They are therefore well placed to reach out to remote communities and offer women the opportunity to come for screening.  

Plans for follow up of the training were shared at the close of the training

Screening is done by applying vinegar acid on cervical tissue.  Resulting colour changes and patterns are interpreted and informing the diagnosis.  The training is therefore much focused on how to interpret these changes and patterns. We met with an enthusiastic and committed group, both men and women.  Interestingly, we were told that it is not a problem in most communities that men carry out this type of screening.  The group was eager to go back and practice what they had learned, determined to contribute to bringing the number of cervical cancer cases in their respective communities considerably down.


 Early detection of cervical cancer can be treated through the Cryo-therapy, through freezing the infected tissues with liquid Nitrogen.  Only some district hospitals in Malawi have such equipment. Many women will have to travel long distances to reach the hospital, and travel and stay away from home represent financial constraints for poor families.  NCA has therefore provided one treatment equipment that can be mobile and brought to clinics in the more remote areas in the southern part of the country. Many more units are needed, but one is at least a start!  

We did not have time to visit any remote clinic, but we visited Mangochi Hospital to see the equipment available in that facility.  The Matron for the Mother and Child department took us around and showed us the screening and Cryo-therapy equipment.  

When women are coming for screening, the hospital is utilizing this opportunity to introduce the women to family planning information and other basic health issues.

 An illustration of family planning methods

The canister with liquid Nitrogen is the main
component of the Cryo-therapy equipment



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