Nanise Sikiti: Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Fijian women

Nanise Sikiti, Medical Officer at the Ministry of Health of Fiji, shared on LinkedIn:

“Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Fijian women.

Being a small country, we hold one of the highest incidence of this disease.
This is a preventable cancer and early screening is the key to reducing morbidity and mortality.

Almost 90% of our women that is diagnosed with this disease, is diagnosed at a late stage hence cannot be treated locally because we do not have radiotherapy services.

It is sad that we get to see young Fijian mothers leaving behind their husbands and young children due to this disease which could simply be prevented by just having a Pap smear or any form of cervical screening test.

This week is the beginning of discussion on how we can tackle this public health problem by aligning our preventable strategies with the WHO elimination goals.

It was great to work with a team of experienced brilliant minds in reviewing our National Cervical Cancer Screening Policy. We are hopeful that this policy with be the keystone in developing a streamlined program for elimination of cervical cancer, hence allow government and funders to ensure availability of resources to prevent and treat this disease.

Cervical Cancer can be eliminated. No Fijian women should die of this disease. It is an uncommon complication of a very common infection and can be simply be prevented.

(Missing from the pic is Dr. Kitione and Dr. Moape )”

Source: Nanise Sikiti/LinkedIn