The 20th-26th of January is European Cervical Cancer Awareness Week and the Irish Family Planning Association has been highlighting this important initiative all week in the media and giving out “Pearl of Wisdom” badges to promote it. It is important that Irish women are aware of this as the rates of women dying from cervical cancer here have increased by at least 1.5% every year since 1978. Taking the average figures, 180 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer in the south this year, 73 of whom will die. One woman in Europe will die from it every 18 minutes.
The awareness week will aim to show that women can go some way to preventing this disease by attending their GP for regular smear tests and getting the vaccination against HPV. Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is the common virus that causes cervical cancer. It is transmitted through sexual contact or intimate skin-to-skin contact. According to Dr. Tracy Murray, a medical spokesperson for the IFPA a shocking 80% of women will come into contact with HPV in their lifetime, and despite this the majority of women do not realise that it causes cervical cancer and furthermore, do not realise it is preventable. “Only 29 per cent of Irish women are aware that a vaccine for cervical cancer exists,” she said. “Despite the fact that cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women under 45, three out of four women don’t know what causes the disease. We hope that this Week will show Irish women how important it is to regularly attend clinics for smear tests and to discuss vaccination with their doctors if appropriate.” And that, is a “pearl of wisdom” worth hearing.
Unfortunately the Irish government has not followed the lead of Governments in the likes of Greece where a pro-active attitude towards cervical cancer has been taken and it is now mandatory that all girls are vaccinated against HPV at age 12. From next autumn, 12 and 13 year old girls in England will receive the vaccination in schools and this initiative is expected to save up to 400 lives per year. This vaccine programme will also be rolled out in the 6 Counties. As well as this the French, Italian, Spanish, German, Belgian, Austrian, Norwegian, Canadian and Australian governments have introduced vaccination programmes. Even some states in the US (with a health care system so inept possibly Ireland is only second to it in Western terms) have introduced a programme. Procrastination in the 26 Cos. by the Government leads to 73 women dying each year. 73 deaths that are preventable.
Although a Cervical Cancer Awareness Week did take place in the 26 Cos. in June it is unfortunate that the government have merely encouraged women to get regular smears and did not follow through with the next logical step – a roll out programme of the vaccine that will prevent it. Dr. Henrietta Campbell of the All Ireland Cancer Foundation has said that Ireland has one of the highest rates of cervical cancer in Europe and while the rates in comparable countries decrease annually, they increase significantly here annually. It is unfortunate for the women of the 26 Cos. that the Government would rather increase spending by almost 200% on PR activities in their Departments than implement a vaccination scheme for this easily preventable disease. Screening through a smear test alone will only help in terms of early identification of irregular or cancerous cells. While early detection and treatment is hugely beneficial and very often life-saving, it should only be complementary to a vaccination preventing the cancer from occurring in the first place.
Unfortunately though this prevention mechanism will only be available to a lucky few. The vaccines are not available on the general medical card scheme and if your GP decides that the vaccination is right for you, you can be expected to pay €500 - €600 for it. So realistically as it stands rich women might get vaccinated, poor women might get cancer. It fits in quite well with the current ethos behind the health system in this state. If you have the cash, great, and if you don’t – well that’s just tough for you isn’t it? “Countries that have been running successful cervical screening programmes over the last 20 years have seen the rate of cervical cancer fall but we have seen hundreds of women die from the disease in Ireland," Dr Campbell has said. It has been found that cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women aged under 45 throughout the world and it is the third leading cause of cancer deaths among women after breast and lung cancer even though it is so preventable. It is disgraceful that in one of the richest economies of the world, one of the biggest killers of women is preventable and yet, Irish girls and women are not being frogmarched to their GPs to get it.
The recent Programme for Government, contains a commitment to make a cervical cancer vaccine available as "a universal public health entitlement", and quelle surprise as of yet there is no sign of it. It is clear that a national immunisation programme on an all-Ireland basis is the only way to combat this. It worked for the Meningitis C vaccine. There is no reason why it cannot work for HPV. Given that there are only 21 female TDs out of 166 in the Dail, perhaps the Government would be far quicker to initiate a programme if it affected men too. It is amazing that this life-threatening disease could be eradicated and literally thousands of lives could be saved. If only the Government that have the power to do it, actually wanted to.
Further information on cervical cancer is available from your GP, from any IFPA or Well Woman clinic or by contacting the IFPA on 01-8069444. National Cancer Helpline on 1800 200 700. More information on European Cervical Cancer Protection Week is available at http://www.ecca.info
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