A WHO meeting on the comprehensive approach to curb the disease in Africa took place in Yaounde.

World Health Organisation (WHO) experts and programme managers from 15 countries in Africa working on cervical cancer prevention programming as well as international donors in the fight against cervical cancer are currently meeting in Yaounde to discuss and develop a holistic approach to cervical cancer prevention and control in the continent.

Meeting under the auspices of the WHO/AFRO consultative meeting, participants will for three days amongst other things share technical updates and current recommendations, best practices and the outcomes of the implementation of comprehensive cervical cancer prevention and control actions in their various countries.

Statistics from WHO indicate that with 528,000 new cases every year, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer affecting women worldwide, after breast, colorestal and lung cancers. While noting that cervical cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer death (266,000 deaths in 2012) in women worldwide, the Country Representative of WHO in Cameroon Dr Charlotte Faty Ndiaye noted that almost 70 per cent of cervical cancer burden falls in developing countries particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

While statistics show that 34.8 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed per 100,000 women annually in Sub-Saharan Africa, 22.5 per 100,000 of these women die from the disease. This according to Charlotte Ndiaye is due to lack of access to effective screening and services that facilitate early detection and treatment. Knowing that Human Papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer which is transmitted through sexual contact, WHO experts say these findings bring into focus the need to implement tools already available for cervical cancer, notably HPV vaccination combined with well organised national programmes for screening and treatment.

While opening the meeting, yesterday March 24, the Minister of Public Health, Andre Mama Fouda lauded the commitment of WHO and partners towards the disease which registers 14,000 new cases in Cameroon and being the second most frequent cancer affecting women in the country after breast cancer. Cameroon's Minister of Health said some work about the vaccine against cervical cancer is already on-going in the country since 2010.

While noting that Cameroon's vaccine introduction has been approved by financial bodies, the Minister added that the vaccine will be extended to two different regions in the country before being introduced at a national level. With the vaccination of young girls between 10 to 13 years before their first sexual relationship, there is hope that cervical cancer will soon be a thing of the past with the next generation of young girls.