October 17, 2023
By News Agency of Nigeria(NAN)
Defence and Police Officers Wives Association (DEPOWA) in partnership with Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria (PPFN) have kicked off free cervical cancer screening for the first one thousand women.
Mrs Ogbogbo Musa, President of DEPOWA, who flagged off the screening exercise in Abuja on Monday, said the initiative was very important as cancer posed a challenge to women a long time.
Represented by Dr Juliette Ango, Chair, DEPOWA medical committee, Musa said they were advocating for early detection and screening, that the screening measures available for cervical cancer were visual inspection and Pap smear.
She clarified that the initiative was gynescope which was different from the conventional method of screening.
Musa, who spoke in an interview on the sideline of the event, said gynescope expanded the cervix up to approximately ten times, giving visual room to pick any altered cancer cells
“Also, in this establishment they have the means to treat and nib the early cancerous cells very early which is very encouraging,’’ she said.
The DEPOWA President disclosed that since the association was a restricted population, they were urging women to come out for the screening.
According to her, the collaboration with PPFN would go a long way to reach women, with the intent to promote cancer awareness and giving free services.
“Having this collaboration and referring most of our women to come is encouraging, as they would be fortunate to have access to this gynescope which is not common in Nigeria as a whole.
Musa, who noted that the initiative was a positive impact, explained that the exercise would be continuous with the belief that other philanthropic organisations would key in to sponsor their women.
She called on organisations to key into the initiative and subsidise for their members or for their women.
Musa said that in the Defence, some women would similarly be sponsored some in the rural communities so that the service can be taken to them.
“There is no limit to doing good and we all try to do our best,’’ she said.
Musa further said that the subsidised free screening would run from the kick off date till December, but that afterwards, women could still turn up for a subsidised price.
Dr Paul Odigbo, Acting Director of Programs at the PPFN, also in an interview, stated that the exercise was an initiative they had with Premare Medical.
He said the aim was to increase and expand access to cervical cancer screening exercise at the national headquarters clinic in Abuja, that with funding, they would expand the reach.
“We intend to actually reach the first one thousand women with free cervical cancer screening,’’ he said.
Odigbo said PPFN intended to go further by getting a machine that they would use to treat the minor lesions or minor cervical cancer lesions they would detect during the screening.
“That is also one initiative we have put in place to ensure that we have zero cancer, especially for cervical cancer in the country.
“For those that have cervical cancer, the next step is to try and look at the extent off the lesion, that will help us know whether we are going to cryotherapy. ‘’
He said there were primary, secondary and tertiary preventions, and if it was a case of secondary prevention and treatment, then they would use cryotherapy.
“If its bigger than that, its already an inversive cancer, that is where we go to the tertiary aspect of the treatment and that requires referral to higher centres,’’ he said.
He maintained that they would be doing more of secondary prevention while handling issues that required cryotherapy and still follow up with the patient till almost six months, to ensure full recovery.
“The PPFN has 45 clinic s in six geopolitical zones of the country, we also partner with 180 clinics both government and private.
“We are testing this at the national headquarters and with funding will move to other regions and spread across.
“What we see here will let us know how far we have gone and acceptability of our project activities and outreach,’’Odigbo said. (NAN)
