President Museveni used the NRM campaigns in Soroti East City to raise an alarm regarding the rising incidents of cervical cancer amongst girls and women, issuing a directive to have vaccination uptake increased immediately.
Museveni who was campaigning for Herbert Ariko, the NRM flag bearer in the Soroti City East byelections stressed that such a candidate was holding the flag of the party that is always on the side of the people in solving problems.
He said that politics is not about individuals but about the party that can solve the problems of the people.
He pointed out the fact that NRM has solved people’s problems from locusts, security, corona pandemic, hunger, immunisation, and free education and is now on the right trajectory to handling issues like fuel crisis.
He used the same platform to issue directives regarding the increase in uptake against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) which is responsible for the increase in rates of women in the country with cancer of the uterus.
“Vaccinate our girls against the cancer of the uterus,” Museveni directed.
Uganda ranks 5th highest among countries in the world with incidences of Cervical Cancer, and yet there is a very low uptake of the vaccines, despite the program of vaccination being launched officially in 2008.
According to a report, at least 78 per cent of girls had not been vaccinated by July 2020.
According to a report by DR Sabrina Kitaka, cervical cancer has now overtaken breast cancer as the leading cause of mortality among women of childbearing age in Sub-Saharan Africa with 85% of all new cervical cancer cases and 90% of all 311,000 cervical cancer deaths in 2018 being reported in low- and middle-income countries.
“World Health Organization (WHO) and Uganda’s Ministry of Health (MOH) recognize primary prevention of cervical cancer i.e. preventing the initial onset of cervical cancer by vaccinating girls aged 9–14 years before exposure to sex/ HPV as a very important factor in the prevention of cervical cancer,” the report reads in part.
However, the vaccination uptake is facing enormous challenges.
