Mangochi Hospital to conduct four days of cervical Cancer screening
Mangochi District Hospital will from June 13 to 16, 2018 conduct mobile mass Cervical Cancer screening campaign in 10 to 14 sites of the district, authorities have confirmed.
This was disclosed on Wednesday during a meeting organized by Disease Relief Through Excellence and Advanced Means (DREAM) of Saint Egidio, where they engaged district interfaith leaders and the media to pass on the message of mobile screening in churches, mosques, radios, TVs and Newspapers.
Matron for Mangochi District Hospital, Mercy Paundi said they are geared to save the lives of women in the district through the campaign and that the exercise remains crucial considering that a lot of women were dying because of cervical cancer.
She explained that the hospital was targeting to test over 2,000 women during the mobile testing days where they would also provide necessary treatment to those diagnosed of the disease.
“For the targeted women we have in mind, we have the resources readily available, from the District Health Office (DHO) and DREAM Saint Egidio, the partner that is supporting the project. So, yes, we will manage the process,” Paundi added.
“Cervical Cancer in Mangochi is very rampant, as of 2017, we had tested 1,964 women and out of the figure 60 women tested VIA Positive (suspected to have the disease) and 91 had cancer whereby most of the interventions done when it has reached an advanced stage are few,” she observed.
Paund urged women of child bearing age to come in good numbers and partake in the cervical cancer screening exercise since it aims at saving lives and reduce suffering.
Mangochi District Project Coordinator for DREAM Saint Egidio, Darlington Thole said they decided to partner Mangochi DHO as one way of complementing government’s effort in fighting cervical cancer.
He said DREAM with funding from Norwegian Church Aid aims at reaching to large numbers of women screened of Cervical Cancer in Mangochi being one of the districts where only a few women have undergone the test.
Thole said to achieve the intended targeted number of women to be tested for the exercise, DREAM had outlined some massive awareness campaigns starting on June 9, 2018 at Mpondasi ground where the organization would sensitize all women in Mangochi to undergo cervical cancer screening.
“In the previous interventions we noted that there was low patronage in testing for cervical cancer in Mangochi. Partly, this was due to the fact that the messages were not fully put out to the public, but now DREAM has come up a package that will appeal even to people in hard to reach areas,” he said
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