Cancer Control in Mongolia v.2: HE Dr. Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu Interviews Dr. Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh

And that’s why as a civil society, National Cancer Council was advocating for HPV vaccination. And we have done a number of research projects to provide evidence that the vaccine was safe to make, to dispel this myth about the infertility issues. And as advocacy for a number of years, finally, we could make changes in the law, amendment in immunization law last year.

And the HPV vaccination is mandatory vaccine passing from this year. And the government is planning to vaccinate boys and girls at age 11. So it means we will be having gender natural vaccination.

Our country is going for single dose HPV vaccination. So we’re really hoping that there will be a lot of progress in cervical cancer elimination. But another area is related with the cervical cancer screening.

As many countries are shifting to HPV testing, we also tried to make some pilot projects to provide evidence that the HPV testing is another feasible testing beside pap smears. So this is our next project that we really want to make change and make steps forward, move things forward to make a better screening testing.

Our numbers are very high. But so far, we have been in two rounds, we’ve had about 12 million girls vaccinated. And that’s the yes, from October last year, but there’s still about another 16 million left.

So it sounds like a lot, but we’re not up to 25%, just about 25%. So but for you, you mentioned gender neutral, which is and the issues in the misinformation and everything behind is just exactly the same issues that we have as well. And being starting from gender neutral point is a very good way to start.

That way, you can just dispel all the rumors about infertility, because it’s girls that people get suspicious about, isn’t it? And I’m so pleased that you’re going to do go down that route. Do you have Gabby support in your country, Mongolia?

At least it’s halfway there. So it’s a good thing when you’re no longer so low middle income, but then it comes at a price for other things. So congratulations, I will keep an eye on that space.

Of course, the other issue is the screening that you mentioned, and the HPV self testing and single HPV, high performance tests and there’s a lot of capacity available now from the COVID equipment, especially I’m sure that once you drive the demand, it will work very well. Does health insurance cover?

And I think the main issue for the country is the price for PCR test kits. It’s still very expensive and not really affordable. So yeah, there will be some negotiations or global movements or initiatives to support the lowering the prices for the test kits.

We can utilize the PCR machines that were bought during COVID pandemic. Yeah, this is, I think, a good opportunity for many countries.

And recently, the government received the initial first portion of the medicines, essential list that I included in the essential list of medicines. So we really think that once we will receive all the medicines with really good quality, the treatment outcome and survival rate will be increased dramatically, and we will have the same results of the treatment like in many developed countries. So it will make big progress in terms of cancer treatment in our country for pediatric cases.

Now you also, I also noticed the liver cancer is very high in Mongolia. Why is that? What is the reason behind this?

And that’s why government has started the initiative on healthy liver program. And it has been running since 2017 for the screening of whole population with the hepatitis B and C infection and subsidized treatment for these infections. And we really hope that the rates will be dropping down over the decade.

Yeah. So that’s why there should be different policies to reduce alcohol consumption, including tax increase, including the reducing the accessibility and all these public health policies should be in place.

And where do you see the Cancer Council in 10 years from now with your role?

And we will see when there will be time when the cervical cancer will be decreased and or fully eliminated in the country. And the childhood cancer survival rate will be the same as developed countries. So these are the…

Yes, questions. Thank you.

I was on your Facebook page and you have all these plans and greenhouses all the time. Tell us about that. Are you growing medicinal plants?

But it’s another thing to grow by your own. So that’s why we decided to grow our plants. And it’s, I think, very important for the kids to improve the, to change the eating behaviors, to promote more healthy eating behaviors.

You have to teach them from the childhood. So once they grow their own vegetables, they are more keen to eat vegetables. Yeah, I saw the recipe and I like it.

I appreciate it. And it’s on one hand, it’s health education, but on the other hand, it’s a childhood education as well.

So we really should.

It was on the TV and everything is there. And she looked, what can she add? What value can she add?

So she started a vegetable garden.