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Deadly yet preventable: Cervical cancer screening, vaccination affected by COVID-19
Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak the medical community had pinned high hopes on efforts to tackle the prevalence of cervical cancer, which remains among the deadliest forms of the disease in the country despite it being the most preventable. However, the pandemic has disrupted mass screening and vaccination programs.
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The high-risk HPV is a virus transmitted through sexual contact that is linked to 99 percent of cervical cancer cases, and with its vaccine, most of these cases are preventable. (Shutterstock/Chinnapong)
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rior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the medical community had pinned high hopes on efforts to tackle the prevalence of cervical cancer, which remains among the deadliest types of malignant growth for women in Indonesia despite it being the most preventable. However, the pandemic has managed to disrupt mass screening and vaccination programs.
A four-year ongoing study of cervical cancer, carried out by Gadjah Mada University’s Center for Reproductive Health and the University of Melbourne’s Nossal Institute for Global Health, found that the number of patients seeking treatment in the capital Jakarta has declined.
The researchers started conducting interviews with dozens of workers from community-based organizations, clinics and hospitals in March, when the outbreak first erupted in the country, to find out why. They discovered that some medical services were adjusted as a result of the epidemic. As it turns out, there were fewer screenings for women, particularly pap smear and acetate acid (IVA) tests, which are used to diagnose cervical cancer. There were also fewer vaccines available for treating an infection of the human papillomavirus (HPV), which is the main cause of this type of cancer.
"If fewer women are going to be screened, then we won't be detecting cancer early, which means [...] women present for treatment [...] at the latest stages where it’s harder to save them," Nossal research fellow Belinda RM Spagnoletti, who focuses on sexual and reproductive health, told The Jakarta Post recently.
The high-risk HPV is a virus transmitted through sexual contact that is linked to 99 percent of cervical cancer cases, and with its vaccine, most of these cases are preventable.
Read also: Reasons not to skip your next smear test
The vaccination, however, is considered costly at around Rp 1 million (US$70.40), or a quarter of the Jakarta minimum wage, and is not part of the national immunization program.
