City gets proactive vs cervical cancer

CEBU, Philippines - With its numbers higher than those of neighboring local government units, Cebu City is eyeing at coming up with a registry of women in line with efforts for cervical cancer prevention.

The registry is aimed at monitoring women at the barangay level to determine the female residents that have undergone cervical screening from 21 – 60 years old. 

Cervical cancer is the leading cause of death among women starting at the age of 30.

Records of the Eduardo J. Aboitiz Cancer Center show that the city has more cases of cervical cancer compared to Mandaue City, Lapu-Lapu City and Talisay City from 1998-2007.

Cebu City has 415 cases while Mandaue City, Lapu-Lapu City and Talisay City have 87, 55, and 47 cases, respectively, within this time period. 

In the North District in Cebu City, the barangays with the most number of cases include Mabolo, Lahug, Talamban, Tinago, and Capitol while the barangays with the most number of cases in the South District include Guadalupe, Labangon, Mambaling, Pardo, and Duljo Fatima.

Metro Cebu has an average of 70 new cases and 37 deaths every year.

“After hearing the concerns of the stakeholders, we decided to do active screening instead of opportunistic,” said Rolando Delos Reyes of RAFI. This means that the government and concerned agencies will be proactive rather than simply waiting for women to undergo screening.

Among the barriers for prevention and cure identified during yesterday’s Cervical Cancer Awareness Assembly include the lack of information about the disease and how to prevent it, lack of discipline for regular check-ups due to fear of being diagnosed with the disease, and lack of financial capability for treatment.

These barriers are the reasons RAFI organized the assembly in line with May as Cervical Cancer Awareness Month or “Scarlet May”.

Other stakeholders present in the assembly include the Department of Health, Destiny Medical Fund, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, and SHE MATTERS. City Nutrition Scholars from Cebu City’s 80 barangays were also present.  (FREEMAN)