THE Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, attended the Caribbean American Hindu Issues Inc (CAHII) Conference at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre on Saturday.

In his speech, Dr Anthony updated the attendees on the country’s many strides in improving healthcare and addressing communicable diseases, including malaria, HIV/AIDS, and filaria, through the implementation of new strategies and expanded services.

He stressed the importance of being vaccinated with the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which is available free of cost and at all health centres across the regions.

He warned that if left untreated, HPV can cause cervical cancer in women and penile and anal cancer in men.

“This is something that is preventable; we have the vaccine, its available in the country but the uptake of the vaccine is not very good”, he stated.

The health minister requested the support of the religious group in enhancing the HPV public health initiative and promoting all health campaigns.

“Our intent is that we want to take this (HPV vaccination) up to 90 per cent. So, to all the leaders here, this is my plead [sic] to you; we can work with you so we can improve the update [sic] of HPV vaccination in our country”, he emphasised.

Currently, the HPV vaccines are being administered to anyone 9-45 years of age.

Dr Anthony also informed the audience of the newly launched Cervical Cancer Screening Voucher Programme which he says is currently recording a low uptake.

“Right now, we have the voucher that the government is paying for, it will cost $8000 if you had to go and do an HPV test on your own. The government is giving you a voucher free of cost to ensure you go and get this test done, but the uptake has been very low,” he said.

According to Dr Anthony, recent statistics from the Guyana Cancer Profile show that cervical cancer remains the second most prevalent cancer among women in the country, hence early screening can aid in detecting precancerous lesions which can be treated early.

“We can work with all of your organisations to make sure that we explain this to people, and they go get the voucher and they get the test; and if they test positive, we can take the next steps to prevent complications from this cancer from happening,” he explained.

The Cervical Cancer Screening Programme has been rolled out across the 10 administrative regions. Anyone 21-65 years of age can uplift a voucher from their nearest health centre and get screened at any of the private hospitals listed on the back of the voucher.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women globally, with around 660,000 new cases and around 350,000 deaths in 2022. (MoH)