Spanning over five years from 2017 to 2022, the strategy is the first step to align agendas and activities among all stakeholders to ensure a coordinated approach in addressing cervical cancer. This is the second most common type of cancer in Bangladesh, with approximately 12,000 new cases detected every year, and over 6,000 deaths due to the severity of the disease.
Scaling up HPV vaccine to girls aged 9 to 13 years, augmenting cervical cancer early screening and treatment programs, strengthening palliative care services or expanding educational campaigns for cervical cancer control are some of the key elements from the newly developed strategy for fighting cervical cancer. All women between 30-60 years of age are considered for screening, a population estimated by the last National Census in Bangladesh to 30 million persons.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the main cause of cervical cancer. Though almost 90 per cent of HPV infections are cleared naturally by the immune system, persistent infections can increase the risk of cervical cancer through development of precancerous lesions and that can progress to cervical cancer over a period of about 10 years. These lesions can be diagnosed and treated using simple and effective outpatient procedures, but since they do not cause any clinical symptoms, they can only be identified by cervical screening.
Bangladesh has a high burden of cervical cancer due to the lack of screening, high prevalence of risk factors like early marriage, early initiation of sexual activity, multiparity, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and low socio-economic condition.
The strategy has been developed by The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) with technical support from the Bangabandhu Shekh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
WHO commends the MOHFW for developing the National Strategy for Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control, Bangladesh as it will guide and strengthen cervical cancer control activities in the country and will help to reduce the burden of morbidity, disability and death from this disease. WHO will work with MoHFW to implement the National Strategy, through introducing effective, organized control programs for cervical cancer.