KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia falls far below the World Health Organisation (WHO) target when it comes to cervical screening, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
She said Malaysia only managed to achieve a rate of 12.8 per cent, a far cry from WHO’s target of 70 per cent.
“Prevention is the key answer to stop cervical cancer, but the challenge is getting women to come forward to be screened. Only 24 per cent of Malaysian women were diagnosed at the early stage, or Stage 1, while 76 per cent were diagnosed at later stages 2, 3 and 4,” she said at the launch of Removing Obstacles to Cervical Screening (ROSE), an innovation by Universiti Malaya (UM) and VCS Foundation (VCSF) of Australia.
Present were Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, UM pro-chancellor Toh Puan Dr Aishah Ong and its Faculty of Medicine dean Prof Datuk Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman.
Dr Wan Azizah said, amongst women in Malaysia, cervical cancer was the third most common cancer at 7.7 per cent after breast cancer (32.1 per cent) and colorectal cancer (10.7 per cent).
“According to the National Cancer Registry Report, the incidence trend increases at the age of 35 and peaks between 50 and 74. The lifetime risk of a Malaysian woman developing cervical cancer is one in 116.”
However, Dr Wan Azizah said the country’s Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Immunisation Programme has achieved vaccination coverage of over 90 per cent among 13-year-old girls, protecting them against the main types of HPV that causes cervical cancer.
“This is an achievement we can be very proud of,” she said.
Meanwhile, under the HPV Vaccination Catch Up Programme that began in 2012, said Dr Wan Azizah, a total of 365,143 women, aged 18 and above, had received the HPV vaccination for free and 75 per cent of them completed all three doses.
On ROSE, Dr Wan Azizah said it demonstrates the means towards an increased screening uptake in a manner that is acceptable to women and their healthcare providers.
“We firmly believe that we can significantly reduce casualties due to cervical cancer. At its heart, ROSE is driven by empathy towards relieving a woman’s screening experience.
“ROSE embodies safety, privacy and dignity through self-sampling, encouraging more women to willingly participate in screening in a timely manner.”
Under ROSE, self-sampling, HPV testing and e-health technology are integrated to enhance a woman’s personal journey of maintaining good cervical health.
At the event, Dr Wan Azizah also witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between UM and VCSF, where both organisations will establish a not-for-profit joint venture to combine expertise to enable the implementation of ROSE as a cervical screening programme in the country.