The University of Jos held its 94th inaugural lecture titled: ‘A sexually transmissible cancer: the miracle of cure or prevention?’’, for students and members of the University of Jos Community.
The lecture which was held at the Multipurpose Hall, Bauchi Road Campus, Jos was attended by members of the University of Jos Community, the Vice-Chancellor University of Jos, Prof. Sebastine Seddi Maimako who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration), Prof. Gray Goziem Ejikeme; Prof. P. Charles Owochie, HOD of Health Sciences; Prof. S.U Fwatshak, Dean Faculty of Arts; Dr. Sarah Lahwas, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Arts; Dr. Jonah Musa, a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology College of Health Sciences, University of Jos and other notable professional colleagues.
Dr. Jonah Musa, the guest speaker began by bringing to light the type of cancer his lecture is based on, which is cervical cancer. He explained that cervical cancer affects women only because of the presence of the uterus, therefore, women are at high risk when they begin to have sexual intercourse. Cancer is one of the most common cancers that affects women and is rated 7th in the whole world and 2nd after breast cancer in Nigeria.
He further explained that cervical cancer spreads to the cervix which is the channel to deliver babies in women. He disclosed that cervical cancer is caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) which becomes present in a woman as soon as she has sexual intercourse. While some women fight the virus at the cervix, some persist as it moves from the normal, low grade, high grade, and finally to the cancer stage resulting in Cervical Cancer.
He stated that “this type of cancer rarely shows signs until it has fully developed into cancer, then the woman starts to bleed during intercourse and at this stage, the woman is now pursuing the miracle of cure.” He provided statistical facts on cervical cancer in Africa, stating that over 70% of cervical cancer occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, and 58% of women who has this cancer die within the first year of diagnosis. A report published in 2018 revealed that 570,000 cases are reported yearly, with 311,000 deaths in the world and almost 53,000,000 are at risk of contracting cervical cancer. In Nigeria, over 60% of women would die within the first year of diagnosis. He went further to explain that 53 million are at risk of this cancer but 8.7% have done the screening. “They are that few because of the lack of check-up equipment in Nigeria, the only check-up centre for cervical cancer is in Zaria and they are not up-to-date in terms of technology,” he said.
“How then is cervical cancer transmitted? HIV contributes a lot to cervical cancer as it helps in the persistence of these causal viruses (HPV), which are sexually transmissible. Therefore, cervical cancer is a sexually transmissible cancer,” he continued. He also mentioned that HIV-positive women are 6 times reliable to develop cervical cancer than HIV-negative women. He enlightened the audiences that the German philosopher, Harald Zur Hausen was the first to discover the Human Papilloma Virus which is a necessary cause of cervical cancer while George Nikolas Papanikolaus (1883-1962) found that pap smear cytology test helps to detect cervical pre-cancer.
Speaking further, he expatiated that in Africa, HIV/AIDS is a burden. Coming down to Nigeria where there is poor advancement and approach to cervical cancer, no active programme and no active invitation to a screening of females for early detection is made whereas Rwanda pays for full vaccination for 10 years, the USA serves every woman at age 21 a letter on when to go for cervical cancer check-up. He urged healthcare providers to provide a clue for patients by telling them to go for a cervical cancer examination. He portrayed research carried out in Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), which shows that over 72% of women diagnosed were at advanced stages of cancer with only 28% diagnosed within their early stages. For women to survive up to 2 years is at a low rate of 0.2%. However, there is a ray of light as he mentioned that giving women modified radical hysterectomy as a means of treatment is now the standard for some hospitals including JUTH thanks to the former Minister of Health, Dr. Isaac Adewole, who helped in ‘OPERATION STOP CERVICAL CANCER IN JUTH.’
He added that some advanced states provide chemotherapy for patients at advanced stages. He, therefore, advised women who have turned 21 to go for the pap smear test for prevention, and other cost-effective evidence-based interventions such as primary prevention through mass human papillomavirus vaccination; secondary prevention through screening; early detection and treatment of pre-cancer; theory-based education of women on the disease to improve their health-seeking behaviour; training of doctors on early diagnosis of cervical cancer and finally the provision of evidence-based treatment for early detection of cervical cancer cases. By taking these measures, it would be of national interest as it has been estimated that 3 doses of effective HPV Vaccines required to prevent infection of this sexually transmissible virus will cost approximately N 7,095 ($20) per girl at risk of this disease. “If we invest $20 in prevention, we will safe more than $20,000 in pursuing a miracle for cure in the future!’’ he stressed.
Dr Jonah ended his lecture after mentioning his future research plans on cervical cancer, where he has on the ground the grant awarded to him by the International Research Career Development Award. In his words: “Albert Einstein said ‘imagination is more important than knowledge, so if you don’t imagine anything, nothing will happen.’ So here is my imagination – I imagine a time when our health care system would be so designed to give a chance to every woman to live and not suffer or die from cervical cancer as the MIRACLE IS IN THE PREVENTION, NOT IN THE CURE.”
