We want to pick up on the post by 'dasKwort' and also feature something on cervical cancer in January. Why? Because this disease is also a major issue for our projects, which we want to tackle more intensively this year.
We are by no means alone in this: the WHO has set itself the goal of eliminating cancer in the coming years; the most important measures here are nationwide vaccination campaigns against the virus and consistent screening of women to detect the disease at an early stage. A global strategy was published in 2020 ('Global strategy to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem')
While both vaccination and screening have long been routine here, this is not yet the case in many countries, especially in the global South and in the less developed regions of Asia. Here, both vaccination and screening rates are far below the recommended guidelines. Rural areas are particularly affected, where many vaccination campaigns have had to be canceled due to a lack of refrigeration facilities for the vaccines; long journeys to gynaecological care facilities make it impossible for many girls and women to go for urgently needed screenings. Another major problem is the population's lack of knowledge about the disease itself and, above all, about the relatively simple ways of combating it. Because if the cancer is detected early, it can be easily removed by relatively harmless surgery.
We therefore want to make greater use of Myanmar and Tanzania to use a very simple screening method. To this end, our gynaecologist Dr. Solveig Groß will travel to Bogale and Nyangao and introduce the so-called VIA (Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid). This method is recognized by the WHO and uses a stick soaked in vinegar to provide an initial indication of a disease. This will be offered in our mobile clinics. In addition, educational campaigns for girls and women will serve to educate the population.
We very much hope that this will enable us to make a contribution to the global goals in our projects - because we believe that these are ambitious, but also realistic.
