Partha Basu shared a post on LinkedIn:

“It was such an honour to falicitate Prof. Dr. Ashrafunnessa for her dedicated effort spanning over 25 years to build the national cervical and breast cancer screening program in Bangladesh. The initiative that started in a small room at Bangabandhu Seikh Mujib Medical University with training of five gynaecologists in 2005 is presently screening nearly a million women every year in 600 screening centers spread across Bangladesh. The programme has set up more than 40 colposcopy and precancerous treatment centers. This week the Vice Chancellor of the University announced that the centre will soon be converted into ‘National Breast and Cervical Cancer Institute‘ with state of art diagnostic and treatment facilities for the top two cancers among women. Feel fortunate to be associated with the programme and Prof. Ashraf right from the beginning.”

Source: Partha Basu/LinkedIn

Partha Basu is Head of the Early Detection, Prevention and Infections Branch at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO), France. He has been awarded the honorary FRCOG by the Royal College of Ob & Gyn, UK recently. Before joining IARC in 2015, he was head of the Department of Gynecological Oncology at the National Cancer Institute in India. His research has been instrumental to recent events that will promote equity in preventing cervical cancer, such as WHO concluding that a single dose of HPV vaccine delivers solid protection, authorities recommending marketing authorization for a new low-cost HPV vaccine in India and WHO recommending a simple and affordable technology (thermal ablation) for treatment of cervical precancers.