European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week January 23-29 2011
Published: Wednesday, January 19, 2011
European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week is taking place between 23-29 January 2011.
The aim of this campaign is to raise awareness about how cervical cancer can be prevented and to encourage women to avail of a free cervical screen funded by the National Cervical Cancer Screening Service, CervicalCheck.
Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of death among Irish women under 44, with over 90 lives lost to the disease every year and 304 new cases diagnosed in 2009.
Now that Ireland has a free cervical screening programme in place and a free school-based vaccination programme, we are in a position to almost eliminate cervical cancer in a generation.
During the week we are calling on women to pass on the good news about regular cervical screening, which can save lives by detecting any abnormalities at an early stage.
The Prevention Week is organised by the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) with the support of CervicalCheck. The IFPA will be distributing 22,000 Pearl of Wisdom badges and information leaflets to women around the country. The Pearl of Wisdom is the international emblem of cervical cancer prevention.
This year the IFPA is teaming up with the Irish Hairdresser Federation and all 350 member salons will present a badge and an information leaflet to every woman who has a hair appointment during the week. Many women consider a visit to a hair salon as "me-time", a period when they have time to relax and reflect. This is an ideal opportunity to pass on some important messages about cervical cancer prevention and screening.
CervicalCheck will be running a series of information sessions about cervical cancer around the country during the week.
Key Facts on Cervical Cancer
- Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women under 44 worldwide. Each year, 500,000 new cases of invasive cervical cancer are diagnosed globally and more than 250,000 women die from the disease.
- 99% of cervical cancer cases are caused by persistent infection of certain high risk types of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the world and approximately 50% to 80% of sexually active women contract some form of HPV at least once in their life. Only a small proportion will develop cervical cancer.
- Well organised screening programmes have been proven to reduce incidence of cervical cancer by 80% and the HPV vaccine has been proven almost 100% effective in preventing certain types of the virus that cause 70% of all cervical cancer cases.
- CervicalCheck is the government-funded national cervical screening programme. The programme provides for women aged 25-44 to have free cervical screening tests from a registered GP, nurse or family planning clinic of their choice every 3 years and women aged 44-60 every five years.
- A free HPV vaccination programme for girls in their 1st and 2nd years of second level school was rolled out in 2010. Starting from 2011, only girls entering into their 1st year of second level school are eligible for the free vaccination programme.
For more information contact Fiona Tyrrell, IFPA Communications Officer, fiona@ifpa.ie, T: 01 8069444, M: 086 7952167