Nigeria joins the world in January to commemorate the 2025 World Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, a global event set aside to increase awareness about cervical cancer.
Considered to be one of the fourth most common cancers in women, cervical cancer still kills thousands of women in Nigeria every year.
In 2022 alone, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 660,000 women were diagnosed with the disease.
Out of this number, about 350,000 of them died from the disease.
In Nigeria, this disease is considered the second most common form of cancer which is often associated with high mortality rates for women and girls between the ages of 15 and 44.
On the occasion of this year’s Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, Nigerians must unite to raise awareness and promote the prevention of this disease to save lives.
This cancer develops in a woman’s cervix mostly due to a persistent infection with the high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV).
Normally, HPV is considered an extremely common virus transmitted through sexual contact.
This disease often goes unnoticed until it becomes deadly.
Typically, HPV infections cause no symptoms and resolve spontaneously.
This is why screening and vaccination are considered as effective prevention approaches.
More encouraging is the fact that the disease if detected early and managed effectively has a high treatment success rate.
This January, Nigeria must work harder toward addressing some of these challenges that increase the risks of women being exposed to cervical cancer or dying from it.
These factors include a lack of awareness about the disease, poor screening rates as well as inadequate access to HPV vaccines.
TheNigerian government already introduced the HPV vaccine into its routine immunisation system in October 2023.
The target was to vaccinate girls aged the ages of 9–14 years with a single dose of the vaccine considered to be highly efficacious in preventing infection with HPV types 16 and 18.
These types have been identified as the cause of at least 70% of cervical cancers.
While regular Pap smears and HPV testing are also timely interventions that can help to detect abnormalities before they develop into cancer, many Nigerian women still do not take the opportunity of these life-saving procedures.
This is due to several reasons such as lack of awareness, financial difficulties as well as the absence of these services, especially in rural communities.
In addition, even when these women are aware of these services, they may not be able to afford them in remote areas due to the absence of trained healthcare providers or the absence of such services.
This calls for a collective effort on the part of the government, development partners as well as the community.
Vaccination efforts must be sustained to reach every girl in every Nigerian home.
Also, the government and its partners must strengthen prevention measures against cervical cancer by offering free HPV vaccines and screenings for women.
There is also a need for increased awareness about the available preventive measures for women by healthcare workers.
Furthermore, communities must also play their part in spreading awareness and supporting women in their health journeys.
Taking this approach, Nigeria will be able to protect its women from this deadly, yet preventable health crisis.
