Vietnam Has 5,000 Fresh Cervical Cancer Cases Annually

Over 5,000 Vietnamese women are diagnosed with cervical cancer annually, medical experts said at a conference on the disease organized in Ho Chi Minh City on October 31. The conference was held by the Vietnam Women’s Union, Medical Diag Center and Roche Pharmaceutical Company with the attendance of nearly 800 women.  It aimed at raising awareness among Vietnamese women of cervical cancer and the importance of screening tests for early diagnosis. Medical experts said that cervical cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer death for women in the globe. Annually, around 500,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer and half of them succumbed to the disease. In Vietnam the disease is also one of the leading causes of death for women. There are more than 100 varieties of HPV, 14 of which are responsible for causing the disease, according to Doctor Le Van Hien, general secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Obstetrics-Gynecology Association. Cervical cancer is caused by sexually acquired infection with certain types of Human papillomavirus (HPV). Among them, types 16 and 18 are discovered in 70% of cervical cancer cases. (Saigon Giai Phong – Liberated Saigon Nov 8)