Burkina Faso: More than 37.000 women screened as part of the fight against cervical cancer
Sneaky, silent and deadly, cervical cancer disables and kills our daughters, our sisters, our mothers… The second leading cause of death after breast cancer, cervical cancer deserves special attention if we are to establish a health policy with a high impact on the health of mothers and children, and on women’s contribution to the economy.
To stem the spread of the disease in Burkina Faso, the NGO JHPIEGO, in collaboration with other organisations, initiated the SUCCESS (scale up cervical cancer elimination with secondary prevention strategy) project. The aim of this project was to increase women’s access to secondary prevention services for cervical cancer, particularly through screening for precancerous lesions.
After three years of implementation, the project is coming to an end. The various players involved in implementation met in a workshop that ended on Tuesday 3 October 2023, to take stock of the activities carried out and prepare for the next stages.
Every year, Burkina Faso records more than 1.000 new cases of cervical cancer and around 850 deaths. This cancer is therefore a public health problem that the NGO JHPIEGO, in partnership with Expertise France and the International Union Against Cancer, has decided to tackle through the SUCCESS project. The activities involved a total of 21 sites in six regions: Centre, Plateau-central, Centre-west, Centre-east, Hauts Bassins and Cascades.
The aim was to screen 40.000 women for HPV and treat precancerous cervical lesions using innovative technologies. In all, more than 800 health and community service providers have been trained and around 36.735 women screened since the project began. 93% of women eligible for treatment have been treated.
As a reminder, precancerous lesions are a warning sign of cancer, which can take 10 to 15 years to appear. Detecting them and treating them in time therefore helps to prevent patients from reaching the cancer stage.
Sadia Nyaoré
