sábado, 17 de agosto de 2013

PLOS Medicine: Reproductive and Maternal Health in the Post-2015 Era: Cervical Cancer Must Be a Priority

PLOS Medicine: Reproductive and Maternal Health in the Post-2015 Era: Cervical Cancer Must Be a Priority

Essay

Reproductive and Maternal Health in the Post-2015 Era: Cervical Cancer Must Be a Priority

  • Ruby Singhrao mail,

  • Megan Huchko,
  • Gavin Yamey
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Summary Points

  • Over the last two decades, there has been unprecedented global action on tackling high maternal mortality rates in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and on expanding access in these countries to reproductive health interventions, including family planning.
  • The attention has paid enormous dividends: from 1990 to 2010, the annual number of maternal deaths worldwide fell from 546,000 to 287,000. While this positive trend is cause for celebration, we also believe that the global health community is failing women in a crucial way: it has neglected prevention, screening, and treatment for cervical cancer in LMICs.
  • Such neglect is difficult to understand. Unlike some other cancers, including selected reproductive cancers, cervical cancer is detectable, highly preventable, and curable if detected early.
  • There is an enormous international disparity in the incidence of, and survival from, cervical cancer, which are both also closely aligned with country income.
  • The incidence of cervical cancer is 52.8 per 100,000 women in sub-Saharan Africa compared to 6.8 per 100,000 women in Western countries. Women are more likely to die in low-resource settings due to lack of infrastructure for screening.
  • In this Essay, we propose four arguments for why cervical cancer screening and treatment should be included when it comes to operationalizing these two goals and thus to improving reproductive and maternal health outcomes. Each of the four arguments is illustrative of a larger framework that has equity and socioeconomic, gender, public health, and health services dimensions.

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