The Germán Urquidi Maternity Hospital attends 3 to 5 patients with advanced stage cervical uterine cancer every week.
This was reported by the director of the hospital, Antonio Pardo, who also described the current situation as “alarming”.
“It is one of the first cancers, that is to say, the one that is affecting women the most, not only in Cochabamba, but at a national level. In the Germán Urquidi Maternity Hospital, 3 to 5 patients with terminal cancer are admitted every week; that is to say, it is advanced cancer, which requires radiotherapy or chemotherapy”, informed Pardo.
He emphasized the importance of early screening of women after the age of 14 years – estimated age for the beginning of reproductive life – in order to avoid late detection.
“In a year and a half (approximately) we have captured more than 10,000 patients; of the 10,000, more than 1,000 correspond to early stages of cancer. They have undergone colposcopy and preventive treatment. These patients will no longer progress to terminal cancer,” he emphasized.
He regretted that, for the moment, there is no accurate way to count the cases of this type of cancer in the department or in the country; since the increase in the figures may also be due, in reality, to the increase in early detection activities, for example, through colposcopies performed in health facilities.
VIRAL Pardo pointed out that cervical cancer is a viral disease, a virus that all people who started sexual activity in their lives are prone to contract. That is why there is a vaccine for its prevention, which is applied from 9 to 14 years of age in Bolivia.
“This year, we have managed to vaccinate not only girls under 14 years of age, but also boys from 9 to 14 years of age, since this disease can be considered a sexually transmitted disease. Society’s sexual behavior has a lot to do with the occurrence of cervical cancer,” she said.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Pardo stressed the importance of having Pap smears once a year as a preventive measure.
“Even the Ministry of Health issued a resolution stating that a day off is given to women who work in any institution to take this test.”
According to the National Institute of Health Laboratories (Inlasa), 4 to 5 women die every day in Bolivia from uterine cancer. Women between the ages of 34 and 65 in La Paz, El Alto, Potosí, Oruro and Sucre are the most affected by cervical cancer.
AI equipment to be used for early cervical cancer detection
The Government of Cochabamba delivered 13 digital colposcopy kits with artificial intelligence for the early detection of cervical cancer in women of reproductive age.
Governor Humberto Sanchez delivered the state-of-the-art equipment, which will benefit the care and attention of the population in the health centers that operate in the municipalities, without the need for them to be third level.
“They are equipment with artificial intelligence, all the tests, the results come out in five minutes,” he stressed.
The equipment is a donation from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
The beneficiary municipalities include: Cochabamba, Sacaba, Villa Tunari, Cliza, Shinaota, Aiquile, Punata, Quillacollo, Capinota.
HPV-negative individuals can receive vaccine
The director of the German Urquidi Maternity Hospital informed on Wednesday that people who undergo a screening test for Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and get a negative result can access the vaccine against this disease.
“If the patient has a papillomavirus test and it comes back negative, she can be vaccinated and also have lifelong protection, because the vaccine continues to act beyond the 10 years previously believed,” he said.
He emphasized the importance of complying with the vaccination process as an effective method of HPV prevention, which in Bolivia is determined to be administered to girls and adolescents between 9 and 14 years of age. In addition, in recent campaigns, boys and male adolescents have also received the vaccine as a method of prevention.