The Director, National Obstetrics Fistula Center (NOFIC), Abakaliki, Johnson Ekuma Obunna has called on the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to begin a sensitisation campaign educating the masses on the method of preventing cervical cancer other than promoting the HPV vaccine.
According to him, cervical cancer is sexually transmitted and cannot be prevented completely by the HPV vaccine.
Obuna, disclosed this in an interview with Tribune Online at the weekend.
According to Obunna, having sex with different persons among girls below 16 years of age is the cause of cervical cancer. He then called on parents, NOA and every Nigerians to join hands in advising children to abstain from sex to stop the spread of the disease.
His words ” We need to look at certain things, to get a vaccine is very expensive and I know that before government decides to give it free, is not free because government use money to buy it and once government use money to buy it, they have forgone other things they should have use the money for.
“But telling somebody that look that cervical cancer is sexually transmitted. Be faithful to your partner, make sure you don’t commence sexual intercourse before the age of 16, it is cheaper than using the money we are supposed to put in another aspect of healthcare for that one.
“So is easier to adhere to that but the problem is that immorality has gone people are not morally sound. People found it difficult to preach immorality and that is why they are going for the one they think is easy.
“So for me, it’s easier to be faithful, abstain from sex before the age of 16 than vaccine so that government will use the money for the HPV vaccine, to attend to the other diseases affecting and killing our children like meningitis ravaging everywhere, cholera and others, so if you take the money and put there, it will be more cost effect.
“So the National Orientation Agency should testify effort to educating the masses on the very simple method of preventing cervical cancer. The second one is screening because HPV does not prevent cervical cancer 100%. Screening In many country has done the magic, once you are sexually committed, go for screening once every year for the first screening if it is negative, you can go every 3 years, is as simple as that. Just go in a second you are screened and it saves whole lot.
“If Nigeria is very rich, I’m a doctor, I’m a manager of health and I know that there are many needs, we have infrastructural deficits in our health sector, government we can take the money to beef up our infrastructural deficit not that HPV is not necessary.”
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