Sabah No 2 in cervical cancer
Published on: Friday, September 21, 2018
Penampang: Sabah is second behind Sarawak in Cervical Cancer Incidences throughout Malaysia. It is recorded by Malaysian Cancer Registry with data between 2007 and 2011 where Sarawak scored 12.1 to Sabah 11.3 out of 100,000 women. This was stated by Dr Norafidah Ahmad, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist KPJ Sabah during a weekly health activity of Senior Citizen Donggongon, here.She said the top high risk factors are Exposure to Human Papillomavirus (HPV) (from early first sex, multiple partners sex, non barrier contraception), smoking, compromised immune system such as HIV, suppressed immune system due to medication and family history.ADVERTISEMENT About 90pc of the cancer is due to HPV where more than 100 types are already known and each assigned a number and type 16 and 18 are the worse. Repetitive infection of the virus enabled them to enter the cells and the cancer development can be from 30 to 40 years.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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Dr Norafidah assured that this can be prevented by vaccination and pap smear test. There are three pre-cancer stages which can be detected by pap smear where the chances of treatment are good otherwise if missed then major surgery is necessary.She also informed vaccination cannot protect against all the known HPV where some brand of the vaccine can only protect against a few of the numbered types. Hence her advice is for all women between 21 and 65 to conduct pap smear test yearly for the first three years and follow up as per doctors advice. - Oswald Supi