In a drive to reduce cases of cervical cancer in the country, the Community of St Egidio through its Disease Relief Excellent and Advanced Means (DREAM) in conjunction with the Ministry of Health (MoH) embarked on a campaign of screening women for early treatment and the latest being Phalombe.
Dream is currently running a-week long campaign in four traditional authorities in Phalombe. These include, Nkhulame, Jenala and Nazombe.
Speaking during the launch of the campaign, National Coordinator for Cervical Cancer at DREAM Dr. Hawa Sangale said the week-long activity targets women between the age groups op 16-45.
She said women should go for testing before the signs appear as at that time it will be too late.
“This is an ongoing exercise. Phalombe has been added to the campaign because the district needs some provisions such as equipment for testing the disease, training for nurses in cervical cancer screening an more awareness on the disease.
It is alarming in all districts in the country. We need to take step by step and hope this will help reduce cases of cervical cancer in the country,” she said.
In his remarks, Phalombe District Health Officer Ketwin Kondowe said they expect to reacheck out to many women in the district by the end of the week-long campaign.
“The responsorship from women is encouraging and many are willing to go for screening. The prevalence rate for cervical cancer in the district stands at 75 out of 100,000 women,” said Kondowe.
The launch for the campaign which took place at Nazombe Primary School in Chiringa attracted a magnitude of people including religious leaders and ParliamentarIan for the area Mary Mpanga.
DREAM is implementing the project with financial support from the Norwegian Church Aid (NCA).