Santanu Saraswati
Kolkata, April 26—When Arshia Parwez was detected cancer in her cervix it was too late. She was having stage-IV carcinoma inside the narrow part of her uterus.
Arshia was having abnormal bleeding after sexual intercourse and even during her menstrual cycle. She had discomfort and pain in the lower abdomen and back and sometimes unpleasant vaginal discharge. “We took her to a local doctor, but he never refer her case to a gynaecologist,” said Arshia’s husband Muhammad Yunus.
“Arshia is no exceptional. She is just another 17,000 new cases in Bengal suffering from cervix carcinoma after getting affected by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), a figure that can be easily checked if proper vaccination is done at a age of nine to 13 years,” said Dr Martha Jacob, team leader, HPV-Vaccine in India.
Martha’s institution, the Union Ministry of Health, has tied up with Chittaranjan National Cancer Research Institute (CNCRI), Kolkata, to make this vaccine available even for the girl children living in a remote village of Bengal, and at the same time create awareness among the state’s women population on how to keep this vulnerable disease at bay.
“It takes about 15 years from when a woman acquires the HPV infection to the time cancerous changes occur in the cells. During this stage, women don’t have any symptoms. The precancers changes in the cervix can be detected only if women undergo a test routinely. Pap test, HPV test or VIA test—are the three screenings done to make sure that the cancerous HPV infected a woman. In developed countries regular cervical screening programmes have reduced the occurrence of cervical cancer by 80 per cent. We will do just that in association with the cancer researchers of CNCRI,” Martha added.
The vaccine, presently available in the market costs nearly Rs 11,000 for three vials. “We have to import from United States. The cost is higher because of international patents’ regulation (IPR). The cost will come down to Rs 2,500 once there will be import of bulk quantity. We will be doing it at rural heath care centre-level as well as through private hospitals and state general hospitals in the urban and city areas. The Union Health Ministry in association with the World Health Organisation, has drawn a roadmap to reduce this number by 2012,” said N K Ganguly, advisor, department of biotechnology, Translational Health Science And Technology Institute (THSTI), New Delhi.
The THSTI advisor informed that the tragedy of cervix cancer is that the disease is eminently preventable. This has been proved in the West where cases of cancer have been successfully reduced by 48 per cent. Approximately 1,32,000 women are newly diagnosed while 75,000 die every year in this country. The case is really alarming in city like Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi. Though not infectious, cervix cancer affects the life of the women but also with their children and families.
According to Ganguly, the Union government has allocated Rs 2400 crores to fund the national cancer control programme in the country, out of which a large part of it will be spend on reducing the number of cervix cancer cases. “There will be community-based health education, early cervix cancer detection and screening activities. And will involve the state health department as well as the private healthcare institutes,” Ganguly said. EOM
santanu_saraswati@hotmail.com
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