Source: Daily Trust
Kaduna — One woman dies of cervical cancer in every two minutes worldwide while about 9,659 die of the disease every year in Nigeria, the Managing Director, Society for Family Health (SFH) Sir Bright Ekweremadu said in Kaduna yesterday.

Presenting a Cryotherapy machine used for treating pre-cancerous lesion of the cervix to privately run Amina Hospital, Ekweremadu decried the increasing number of cancer cases, noting that the machine would go a long way in changing the landscape of managing cervical cancer in the country.

According to him, cervical cancer is the most common female cancer in developing countries with approximately 500,000 new cases and 250,000 deaths occurring each year.

"Around the world, a woman dies of cervical cancer every two minutes. Women in developing countries suffer disproportionately from the burden of cervical cancer, which accounts for over 80% of all cases. About 24.8% of women in the general population harbour the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) which is a virus that causes cervical cancer in women and genital warts in both men and women", he said. Ekweremadu said cervical cancer screening is currently the most cost effective approach to its control but that less than 5% of women in developing countries have access to screening services and that it is against the backdrop of the danger associated with the disease that the SFH decided to present the machine to hospitals. Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Kunle Alao, thanked the SFH for choosing his hospital as a beneficiary, assuring the machine would be put into effective use

• Nigeria