According to health experts, cervical cancer forms a greater percentage of all gynaecological cancers seen at the Korle-Bu and the Komfo Anokye Teaching hospitals in Accra and Kumasi respectively.
To educate and create awareness of cervical, breast and prostate cancers among students of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), the Women's Commission of GIMPA has organised a programme dubbed "Know your health status".
Giving a lecture on cervical cancer, a cytotechnologist at the School of Allied Health Sciences, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Ms Lois Adunyame, said cervical cancer affected the cervix.
She said statistics show that globally, a woman dies of cervical cancer every two minutes and about 80 per cent of the deaths occur in developing countries as a result of weak or non-existent cervical cancer screening and treatment programmes.
She explained that symptoms of cervical cancer were not obvious and may not be seen at all until it had reached an advanced stage.
Some of the symptoms at the advanced stage include abnormal bleeding, post-menopausal women bleeding, pelvic pain and heavy vaginal discharges which may be smelly.
Ms Adunyame said doctors have proven that the major cause of cervical cancer was the Genital Human Papalloma Virus (HPV), which could be transmitted through sexual contact.
She explained that the virus was a germ found in the skin of the genital area of both male and female and has the potential of converting the normal cells into cancerous ones.
She said the only guarantee of not acquiring the virus was total abstinence from sex, adding that ladies who engaged in early sexual activities were at a high risk of acquiring the virus.
She noted that cervical cancer could be detected through early screening using the Papanicolaou (pap) smear method for the early detection of the cancer cells in the cervix.
Ms Adunyame advised women to go for regular pap smear to help reduce their chances of acquiring the cancer.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, later, the Executive Secretary of the Cancer Society of Ghana, Rev. Fr Victor Sackey, said a national cancer committee had been formed to put in place a cancer care plan for the country.
He was optimistic that by the end of the year a "blue print" national policy would have been put in place to help tackle the various cancers in the country effectively.
"Most developed countries have national policies and regulations on cancers, coupled with the availability of statistics, to help monitor its development,” he said and explained that apart from not having a national policy, there was also inadequate statistics to help monitor the development of cancer cases in the country.
Rev. Fr Sackey said statistics available in the country at the moment were mainly gathered by pathologists in the main teaching hospitals and, therefore, appealed to the government to come to the aid of cancer patients in the country by putting in place a national policy and more screening centres.
"Issues of cancer need to be tackled urgently and so the government must provide resources and logistics for the training of specialists in the area to help in the early diagnosis and treatment of patients," he said.
Rev. Fr Sackey noted that at the moment Ghana had no specialist nurse in cancer to help in the treatment of the disease.
The Women's Commissioner of GIMPA, Hajia Hanatu Abubakar-Bimi, said the programme was under the auspices of the Student Representative Council (SRC) to help create awareness among the students.
She advised women to feel at ease, take bold steps and put aside all cultural and religious barriers to go for screening and treatment.
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