More Ghanaian women diagnosed of cervical cancer-annually-Medical Doctor

More Ghanaian women are being diagnosed of cervical cancer with about 3,000 women being diagnosed annually in the country, Dr. Joseph Osei, General Medicine Practitioner at the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital, has said. He added that 2,000 of the women affected by the disease are likely to die when they failed to seek early medical treatment and, therefore, entreated women in particular to undergo cervical cancer screening to help detect the virus. Dr. Osei who was speaking at a health awareness campaign organised by Radio Shama in collaboration with Shama Health Directorate at Shama on Saturday, said the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) that caused cervical cancer affects only women; however, the virus is mostly obtained from men during unprotected sexual intercourse. He said the prevalence rate of cervical cancer had overtaken breast cancer cases diagnosed annually in the country and thus, mentioned some risk factors as women with multiple sexual partners, excessive smoking and alcohol intake, as well as women that had given birth to seven or more children. Dr. Osei observed that there is a vaccine known as HPV vaccines that could protect against the strains of the virus, adding that vaccination against cervical cancer had been organised in Central and Northern regions last year and hoped it would be extended to other regions in view of the danger posed by the disease. The virus mostly affects the cervix of the vagina therefore a sour will develop, which produces yellowish or greenish foul discharge. �If early treatment is not soughed, it would grow and spread to the womb and could result in infertility in women because the fallopian tube could be blocked and, therefore only surgery could be conducted to rectify the problem�, he explained. The medical officer observed that young women could be infected but the symptoms would show up around 35-40 years old and, therefore, mentioned some signs of the disease as sours on the cervix, prolonged menstruation for more than seven days, unpleasant discharge from the vagina, bleeding after sex while some women would also bleed profusely even without sexual intercourse. Earlier, Mr. Erzuah Amunzu, Head of Programmes at Radio Shama, indicated that radio station organised a health-walk as a way of creating health awareness among the populace on the need to keep fit to avoid contracting diseases. He added that the health awareness campaign was mooted out from a weekly programme �Wo Apomu Tseden,�which was held every Sunday on the station to discuss health issues. More than 300 people drawn from the various Keep-fit clubs in the Shama District, students and individuals interested to keep fit took part in the four-hour health-walk from Inchaban to the fore court of the radio station at Shama.