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Dr Grace Adjoa Ocansey, a Clinical Epidemiologist has called on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to absorb the cost of cervical cancer screening for women in Ghana.
The NHIS is a social intervention programme introduced in 2003 to provide equitable access and financial coverage for basic healthcare services to persons resident in the country, allowing a subscriber to access services or medicines/treatments that are covered under the Scheme’s benefits package at credentialed healthcare facilities, for free.
She made the call when delivering a presentation on findings, lessons learned, and recommendations from a one-year cervical cancer project dubbed: “Adopting and Piloting a Cervical Cancer Surveillance Programme in Ketu South Municipality” at Ketu South Health Directorate’s 2024 programme of work review meeting. The project was implemented by the Ketu South Municipal Health Directorate in collaboration with the Ghana Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme (GFELTP), a competency-based programme at the University of Ghana.
Dr Ocansey who is also the Principal Investigator, GFELTP emphasised the need for increased access to cervical cancer screening services to benefit particularly, low-income women who would not be able to afford the cost of screening, indicating that during the course of the project, “women who had to screen at the health facility and had to pay complained of the cost (GH¢50).
She said cervical cancer caused by Human Papilomavirus (HPV) “happens when the cells of the cervix begin to change to precancerous cells” noting not all precancerous cells would turn into cancer thus, the need to find these problematic cells early and treat them to prevent the disease and its attendant problems including death.
It was also recommended that the project should serve as a model for the National Cervical Prevention Programme; that the National Health Information Officer should develop a database for monthly reporting of screening data and that staff who would offer the services should have a refresher course once a year.
For the project, a total of 823 eligible women (25 to 64 years) were screened using Visual Inspection with Acetic acid (VIA), pap smear and HPV DNA testing, with 450 women being selected. Of the 450, almost half of the women (204) were HPV positive, 49 VIA positive and 16 with precancerous lesions. As part of the project, all screened positives were linked to care for free.
Dr Ocansey, in an earlier interview with Ghana News Agency said, “The overall goal of this project is to pilot a cervical screening programme in Ketu South Municipality to early detect, respond and appropriately manage cervical pre-cancerous and cancerous cases to improve their prognosis and survival, and to provide evidence to support the call for establishment of an effective national population-based cervical screening and surveillance programme in Ghana.”
She explained that with the rising teenage pregnancy, high HIV positivity and as a border municipality, at risk of high-risk sexual behaviours, Ketu South Municipality was considered the best choice for the pilot project.
Source: GNA
