Each day, a woman in Moldova is diagnosed with cervical cancer and once in three days a woman dies from cervical cancer in Moldova. The data were presented in an event held to launch the national awareness-raising campaign “Maintain health. Do Pap test!”, IPN reports.
As part of the campaign, there will be disseminated TV and radio commercials and brochures in health facilities in a move to sensitize and inform women aged between 25 and 25 about the need to have a Pap test once in three years. These, for their part, will be urged to encourage other women from society to go to the family doctor to have a Pap test.
Minister of Health, Labor and Social Protection Viorica Dumbrăveanu in the launch noted that we every time say life has priority and health should be the most valuable priority of life. Cervical cancer is the most spread form of cancer, but this can be prevented and the prevention measures are simple and efficient. A Pap test should be performed once in three years and the girls aged ten and up should be vaccinated against the Human Papillomavirus (HPV).
UNFPA Moldova Assistant Representative Natalia Plugaru said that half a million women are globally diagnosed with cervical cancer annually. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the cases that result in death are ten times higher in number than in Western Europe. In Moldova, only 40% of the women have a Pap test, but this figure is too small to prevent disease.
Valeriu Sava, health program coordinator at the Swiss Cooperation Office in Moldova, stated that the investments, development of services and creation of conditions for these to be accessible will not be efficient as long as the main players for which these services are designed are not sufficiently informed and are not sufficiently responsible to benefit from such services.
According to the National Public Health Agency, 370 new cases of cervical cancer are annually recorded in Moldova. The cases of cervical cancer at an early stage represent 47%. Doctors of the Oncological Institute supervise over 4,200 women with cervical cancer that is primarily caused by the HPV.
The European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week was held during January 20-27.