According to the Department of Health (DOH), an estimated 12 Filipino women die of cervical cancer every day, making it the second deadliest form of cancer among females in the Philippines. Six thousand individuals get diagnosed with this disease every year, with more than half of them dying in five years.
May is Cervical Cancer Awareness month, and in order to help women in the country, DOH, in partnership with medical societies like the Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society and the Society of Gynecological Oncologists in the Philippines, is conducting a free cervical cancer screening program.
Women between the ages 30 and 49 may visit any DOH-retained hospital nationwide to avail of the free screening. Those diagnosed with cervical cancer will be able to get immediate treatment at three DOH medical centers--Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center, Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital, and Cotabato Regional Hospital--where three cryotherapy machines used to destroy abnormal tissues in the cervix are to be turned over.
Screenings are offered for the whole month of May every Wednesday in Metro Manila, every Friday in Luzon, every Tuesday in Visayas, and every Thursday in Mindanao.
(Photo by Nykko Santos, courtesy of M2.0 Communications)
