The Department of Health (DOH), global pharmaceutical
company MSD and medical societies hope to go full circle for this year’s
Cervical Cancer Awareness Month in May, and strike directly at the source of
cervical cancer—the human papillomavirus or HPV.
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in
both men and women which causes cervical cancer. According to the World Health
Organization, cervical cancer is the second most common cancer afflicting women
worldwide with about 500,000 new cases and 250,000 deaths each year. In the Philippines , an
estimated 12 Filipino women die due to cervical cancer each day.
For these reasons, the DOH and MSD, along with medical
societies Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society (POGS), Society of
Gynecologic Oncologists of the Philippines (SGOP) and Philippine Society of
Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (PSCPC), continue with their partnership,
dubbed as Babae, MahalagaKa!, for the 6th year of the Cervical Cancer Awareness
Month (CCAM) celebration.
Free cervical cancer screening will be offered to women aged
30-49 years old in 58 DOH-retained hospitals nationwide for the whole month of
May. “Screening, either through Pap smear or visual inspection using acetic
acid (VIA), should be done on women who are sexually active or had history of
sexual contact. This service is being offered for free every May in government
hospitals, to help detect cervical cancer in its early stage, while it is still
treatable and curable,” said Dr. Rey Delos Reyes, past President of POGS and
SGOP, consultant of Jose
Reyes Memorial
Medical Center
“The good news is that early this year, PhilHealth included
the treatment for cervical cancer in the Z Benefit Package program. The benefit
package includes cervical cancer chemoradiation with cobalt or primary surgery
worth Php120,000 or cervical cancer chemoradiation with linear accelerator for
Php175,000 depending on what is needed by the patient,” imparts DOH Secretary
Enrique Ona.
Apart from free screenings nationwide, MSD in partnership
with DOH will be providing free quadrivalent HPV vaccinations to 9,000 girls
aged 13 years old this coming school year. “Our mission is not only to discover
and develop medicines and vaccines for unmet medical needs but we would also
like to make these accessible to people who can benefit from them. This
initiative would help demonstrate how to implement a school-based vaccination
program which can serve as a model for a national program,” shares Sanjiv
Navangul, President and Managing Director of MSD in the Philippines .
Aside from cervical cancer, the quadrivalent HPV vaccine can
also prevent vulvar and vaginal cancer, as well as genital warts. It is
important to note that HPV is implicated in various diseases aside from
cervical cancer such as cancers of the vulva, vagina, anus, penis, head and
neck, and genital warts. It is themost common sexually transmitted infection in
both men and women. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
have stated that HPV is so common that nearly all sexually-active men and women
get it at some point in their lives.
“Due to the many risks that HPV poses and the many lives
claimed by cervical cancer, the DOH hopes that through the yearly celebration
of CCAM, more and more women will be educated and encouraged to undergo
screening and vaccination, “says Secretary Ona.
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