Cervical cancer

UNICEF supports roll out vaccines against infectious diseases and cervical cancer for Pacific children

 

The deployment of the three vaccines is part of the US$29.7 million System Strengthening for Effective Coverage of New Vaccines in the Pacific Project, which is supporting the introduction of these vaccines in Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

Financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the vaccine project was originally established to support the procurement of rotavirus, pneumococcal conjugate, and human papilloma virus vaccines through the United Nations Children's Fund.

Cervical screening programme push in Samoa

Associate Professor Merilyn Hibma from Otago University said new advances in technology could be used to help break through the taboos that lead to many women avoiding screening.

She said many Samoan families had lost someone to cervical cancer and women are finding the new approaches to testing for the disease empowering.

"So you can detect the changes early with devices that are portable and can give results within one hour.

More cervical screening needed in Kiribati

The Kiribati Family Health Association and Volunteer Services Abroad interviewed 90 people in South Tarawa to find out how much they knew about the second most common cause of women's cancer.

A VSA researcher, Holly Coulter, said it soon became clear much more education was needed.

Husband slept in same room as wife's body for six days

Wendy Davison, 50, died at home in Derby last month after a 10-year battle with cervical cancer.

Russell Davison, who has been left "heartbroken", said he did not want her body to go to a mortuary and he wanted to challenge attitudes towards dying.

It is legal to keep a body at home and Derbyshire Coroner's Court confirmed Mrs Davison's GP reported her death.

Mr Davison said: "Death seems to be such a taboo subject in our society, no-one seems to want to talk about it.

Kiribati makes progress on preventing cervical cancer

This is according to New Zealand gynecologist, Dave Peddie, who has been travelling to Kiribati every six months since 2010 to assist local doctors.

RNZ reports Dr Peddie said with each trip he saw progress being made by local health authorities despite the significant challenges.

He said the cervical screening programme in Kiribati was about 50 percent of the way to becoming a good programme and more work needed to be done.

"They need medical technical equipment. They need the training to use it and a screening program needs coordination," he said.

Pacific Fisheries high on PIF agenda

Topics on discussion for the Pacific Island Forum leaders’ summit are;

1.            Increase return from fisheries and maritime surveillance

2.            Climate risk and disaster risk management

3.            Information and communication technology

4.            West Papua

5.            Cervical cancer  

The Pacific Ocean is the largest in the world and accounts for three thirds of the world’s tuna stock but this does not translate into revenue.