Did you know that there are 26 vaccine-preventable diseases up to date?
hehe. wala lang. I just attended gyne discussion and Doc emphasized our roles in preventing diseases. Cancer at that. Patient or people education can be heroic in a sense... sabi niya. So I'm writing. haha, feeling.
Cervical Cancer is preventable. Among the primary prevention is HPV vaccination. I'm not sure if a lot of people, especially the nonmedical students know about this already. The breakthrough was 2 just 2-3 years ago.
HPV vaccines is administered at age 10 to 26. Although it's best to administer it at 11 and 12 years of age because this has the highest immunogenecity among all ages and because usually, young girls nowadays engage in sexual activities as early as age 13 or 14 (in the Philippines ha!).
It costs around 3500-5000 pesos, depending on the brand. And is administered thrice. So there... cervical cancer (HPV 16,18) and genital warts (HPV 11 and ?) are preventable.
Click here for more HPV vaccine facts.
Aside from having the vaccine, the screening test--PAP smear is another way of prevention. This detects early cervical intraeipthelial changes. And by early detection, there is high curability rate.
PAP smear should be done after two years of first sexual contact, and at least every after 3 years if you get a negative result, but if you are at risk of developing cervical cancer, annual screening should be done.
