Awareness campaign on cervical cancer for mothers, daughters

Visakhapatnam: As key decision makers, mothers play an imperative role in health interventions among their daughters, said D Leela, gynaecology oncologist of Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (HBCH&RC), Aganampudi, during Mother-Daughter awareness campaign at Visakha Vimala Vidyalayam, Pedagantyada.

The campaign was organised as part of the cervical screening awareness programme meant for both mothers and daughters.

Cervical cancer, Leela said, was the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in India. "Hence a mother's awareness about the symptoms and risk factors has a huge impact on the daughter's health. Mother and adolescent daughter pair aim at sensitising the target population who are at risk of carcinoma cervix. Screening of mothers who are above 30 years of age and above are screened for breast and cervical cancers and daughters in the age group between 10 and 14 are given two doses HPV vaccination at an interval of six months to protect against HPV infection, thereby preventing cervical cancer," Leela said.

In a bid to prevent cervical cancer incidence, Director of HBCH&RC D Raghunatha Rao said remote villages like Appapuram and Dhananipeta in Srikakulam district have been adopted for complete screening of women and vaccination of girls against HPV virus that causes cervical cancer. "So far, we have conducted more than 100 pairs of mother-daughter screening process. Our goal is to achieve 85 per cent of cervical cancer screening between the age group of 35-45 and 90 per cent of vaccination among adolescent girls and bring down the growing number of cervical cancer cases by 2030," he informed.

Further, Dr Rao said the situation in rural areas was far more alarming where the majority of women were illiterate and ignorant about the hazards of cervical cancer. Therefore, there was an urgent need to empower the women by educating them on this issue, he said. "Also, there is a need to encourage the mothers to communicate right information to their adolescent daughters and hence the mother-daughter pair initiative being taken," the director added.