Cervical cancer in Africa

Abstract

Cervical cancer is a relatively rare disease in countries that have instituted and maintained national screening programs, with call and recall of women at various intervals and built-in quality control with appropriate monitoring and evaluation. Unfortunately, this process has failed in most areas of the world where more than 80% of new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed. Cervical cancer affects women in the prime of their lives causing premature and needless suffering and death in a critically important segment of the world's population, despite being one of the few cancers that can be prevented with simple testing. In the past 15 years innovative approaches to both primary and secondary prevention of cervical cancer have been subjected to a number of large scale, scientifically valid and applicable studies that have opened the way for new approaches. Treatment of cervical cancer in Africa is hampered by the lack of diagnostic and treatment facilities, lack of healthcare infrastructure and poor pathology services. Further, there is a significant brain drain of trained healthcare workers in Africa that exacerbates the problem. Cancer is becoming an increasingly important public health problem as more people live longer. It is time to develop programs for the prevention, early detection, treatment, and palliation of cancer sufferers in Africa.