The disclosure that the Federal Government will, as from September 25, commence the introduction of the lifesaving Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccines to protect teenage girls aged nine to 15 years against cervical cancer and other related diseases is cheering. This was recently disclosed in Abuja by the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, at a meeting with religious leaders on the delivery of primary health care. If the target coverage is reached, it is hoped that the rollout of the HPV vaccines will prevent 71,000 deaths annually.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), HPV types 18 and 16 types are responsible for nearly 50 per cent of high grade cervical pre-cancers. The HPV is mainly transmitted through sexual contact and most people are infected with HPV shortly after the onset of sexual activity. It has been established that women living with HIV are six times more likely to develop cervical cancer compared to women without HIV.
Available data show that cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women globally, with an estimated 604,000 new cases and 342,000 deaths in 2020. About 90 per cent of the new cases and deaths worldwide reportedly occurred in low- and middle-income countries. According to Nigeria’s HPV and HPV-related cancers fact sheet 2023, Nigeria has a population of 60.9 million women aged 15 years and older who are at risk of developing cervical cancer.
The current estimates show that every year, 12,075 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 7,968 die from the disease. Cervical cancer ranks as the second most frequent cancer among women between 15 and 44 years of age. Also, about 3.5 per cent of women in the general population are estimated to harbour cervical HPV-16/18 infection at a given time, and 66.9 per cent of invasive cervical cancers are attributed to HPVs 16 or 18.
However, cervical cancer can be prevented and even cured if detected early. Medical experts are of the view that vaccination against HPV and screening and treatment of pre-cancer lesions is a cost-effective way to prevent cervical cancer. The good news is that cervical cancer can be cured if diagnosed at an early stage and treated promptly.
In addition, comprehensive cervical cancer control includes primary prevention, which is vaccination against HPV, secondary prevention, which entails screening and treatment of pre-cancerous lesions, and tertiary prevention, which also involves diagnosis and treatment of invasive cancer and palliative care.
We urge the government to make sure that these levels of care are available in Nigeria. Apart from being made available, they should also be affordable. Nigeria needs more cancer screening centres in the states and local government areas. With more cancer screening centres across the country, the disease can be detected early and cured.
We also need more oncologists so that they can manage the rising cases of cancer in the country. Apart from cervical cancer, government should pay attention to other cancers that affect women and men in the country. We call for a national cancer prevention programme that all states should embrace. At the same time, the programme should be adequately funded.
Since prevention is key to averting deaths from cervical cancer, the federal, state and local governments should jointly wage a relentless war against the scourge. The government must ensure that the introduction of the HPV vaccines slated for September 25 is nationwide. This calls for sensitisation of the people, especially the target population, across the country using various organs of information dissemination. The message should be in English, Pidgin and major Nigerian languages.
Beyond the intervention on cervical cancer, government must tackle other cancers that still affect Nigerians. They include breast cancer, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, lymphoma and melanoma, oral and oropharyngeal cancer. It should also not ignore malaria, diarrhoea, tuberculosis, influenza/pneumonia and others that affect Nigerians.
For the government to effectively tackle the nation’s rising disease burden, it must substantially increase the health funding to at least 15 per cent of our national budget. The current annual budgetary allocation to health, which hovers between four and five per cent, is not enough to solve the nation’s health care challenges.