Cancer specialists and advocates say strengthening collaboration among stakeholders against cervical cancer is crucial to achieving elimination of the disease in Nigeria.
They stated this yesterday during the second stakeholders' summit on cervical cancer in Abuja.
Dr Osasuyi Dirisu, Executive Director of Policy Innovation Centre (PIC), said cervical cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women aged 15 to 44 in Nigeria.
She said partnerships and collaborations were fundamental to ensuring Nigeria makes progress with any immunisation programme globally including for the Human papillomaVirus (HPV) vaccine which helps prevent cervical cancer.
She said eliminating HPV is important because it increases risk for cervical cancer, and also because of the World Health Organisation (WHO)'s ambitious targets for cervical cancer elimination, mandating Nigeria to maintain an incidence rate of below 4 per 100,000 women.
Dr Ishak Lawal, a gynecologist and the executive director, End Cervical Cancer Nigeria Initiative (ECCNI), one of the lead partners for the stakeholder summit, said elimination of cervical cancer could not be achieved without collaboration and coordination.
He said the objective of the summit is mainly to fast-track Nigeria's cervical cancer elimination target by bringing stakeholders together to develop locally relevant solutions.
He said, "WHO has set a target that for us to eliminate cervical cancer, we must achieve 90% vaccination of our adolescent girls. We must achieve 70% screening of women that are eligible. And if we screen, we must treat every 90% of screened positive cases.
"Because currently, if you look at the global literature, it says that there is no path for developing countries to be able to achieve that road map, that target. So, this summit is bringing the local stakeholders together, to brainstorm on the local solution to ensure that Nigeria meets the target. It is for us to come together to brainstorm and cross-catalyze ideas and scale up best practices."
Prof. Usman Aliyu, Director General of the National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (NICRAT), said the agency was working towards expanding cancer treatment centers across the country; from 6 to at least 12.
Represented by Waziri Usman, the Director of Cancer Prevention and Control at NICRAT, he said the institute was presently working to ensure a national cervical cancer screening programme in line with one of its strategic goals of eliminating cervical cancer.
He said early last year, the institute launched the National Cervical Cancer Control Programme, adding that about two months ago, the institute under the Federal Ministry of Health, constituted the National Task Force for Elimination of Cervical Cancer.
He said, "By 2025, the operationalisation of the Cervical Cancer Elimination Programme in Nigeria will kick start at national level."
The first lady of Katsina State, Dr Zulaihat Dikko Radda, said, "We must work together to ensure that every woman and girl has access to screening, vaccination and treatment. Let us share our expertise, experiences and ideas to develop effective strategies for cervical cancer elimination in Nigeria.
"Today, we gather as stakeholders to reaffirm our commitment to eradicating cervical cancer, we must work together to ensure that every woman and girl has access to screening and vaccination."
She said from May this year, Katsina State successfully rolled out the HPV vaccine among other phase two states and achieved 100 per cent coverage, with her daughter as the first to be vaccinated.
"I urge us all to approach this meeting with a sense of urgency, compassion and collaboration," she added.
The president of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Prof. Audu Bala, who was represented by the immediate past president of the Nigeria Cancer Society (NCS), Dr Adamu Alhassan Umar, said with commitment, Nigeria will have good stories to tell even if it does not achieve elimination of cervical cancer by 2030.