Researcher intensifies campaign against cervical cancer

Saint Louis University, United States of America (USA), in collaboration with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) and the University of North Carolina has launched a campaign against cervical cancer in Nigeria.

A professor of Global Health at Saint Louis University, Prof. Juliet Iwelunmor, said the gesture carried out through a crowd sourcing programme, was aimed at curbing the increase in cases of cervical cancer in Nigeria.

She explained that long-lasting infection with certain types of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the main cause of cervical cancer. HPV is a common virus that is passed from one person to another during sexual intercourse. At least half of sexually active people will have HPV at some point in their lives, but few women will get cervical cancer.

She said her sister-in-law, Angela Akumuo, was diagnosed with the disease in the summer of 2021. She explained that her death, like many other women who continue to die from cervical cancer, could have been prevented.

“I want to look at the state of cervical cancer control in Nigeria, including a recent costing exercise that estimates it will cost close to $1 billion dollars to achieve the global strategy for cervical cancer elimination via vaccination, screening and treatment,” she said.

Iwelunmor noted that the national budget for health in Nigeria was about N81 billion, saying it was insufficient to help the country achieve its global goals.

She said the group led by herself and researchers at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, seeks to change the narrative by working with Nigerian women and girls directly to increase the uptake of HPV vaccination for girls and HPV screening for mothers or other female caregivers to ultimately achieve the global goal of cervical cancer elimination.

She stated that the focus of the research was how to sustain evidence-based interventions in resource-limited settings. “I have addressed sustainability from research related to hypertension, malaria, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) but now turning attention to cervical cancer,” Iwelunmor added.

The Nigerian Institute of Medical Research led by Dr. Oliver Ezechi, and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, led by Dr. Joseph Tucker, has spent the past five years working to promote HIV self-testing with Nigerian youths themselves using crowdsourcing open calls, 48-hours designathons, month-long innovation boot camps and subsequent implementation of finalist programmes in community settings.

“Our programme, now in its fifth year, boldly displays how Nigerian youths themselves can be partners and leaders with HIV prevention interventions and not just beneficiaries of interventions designed by researchers alone. Interventions created by the group have led to an increase in HIV self-testing from 29 per cent at baseline to 90 per cent at three months follow.” 

She added the researchers were striving to repeat the same success, but this time with HPV vaccination among girls and HPV screening among their mothers or female caregivers.