Awareness on cervical cancer

St Anne's Clinic in Birkirkara has embarked on an information campaign to raise awareness about cervical cancer - the second most common among women, following breast - and how to prevent and combat it.

Free specialist advice is being offered so patients can access information on the cancer and need not rely only on a website, gynaecologist Astrid Camilleri said.

The clinic also offers, at a charge, the jab that can help prevent cervical cancer by protecting against the human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually-transmitted disease that is the main cause of cervical cancer. The disease is detected through a simple and fast smear test, which the clinic also offers. The campaign would encourage women to take both the smear test and the jab.

About 470,000 women worldwide contract cervical cancer every year, with 190,000 - and 12,800 in the EU alone - dying from it, Health Minister Joe Cassar said.

In Malta, the incidence was not as high: 16 cases in 2007, with five deaths in 2008. But the government was still giving the condition great importance and was working on how and when to set up a national screening programme, Dr Cassar said.

When asked, he said the government was also studying the possibility of subsidising the vaccine but within the context of sustainability and priorities. Smear tests were offered at health centres, he said.

Although it cut the incidence of cervical cancer by 70 per cent, Dr Cassar insisted that the HPV vaccine did not protect women from other sexually-transmitted infections and caution had to be exercised anyway.

He said the long-awaited Sexual Health Policy, which would be launched shortly, was not about sexual intercourse but a lifestyle issue: how the nation should look after its sexuality and maintain sexual health. It would have a strong focus on education in schools, he said.

The cervical cancer campaign is one in a series at St Anne's Clinic. Others are targeting hearing problems among children aged between two and six, and often confused with speech, pronunciation and behavioural problems, including autism. The campaign will be launched in September, raising awareness of a condition known as glue ear that can cause more complications 20 years later if left untreated.