Nine Thai women die every day from cervical cancer, the deputy chief of the Medical Department revealed yesterday.
Wanchai Satayawutthipong, who presided over a workshop yesterday on guidelines for screening to detect cervical cancer in 75 provinces, said the disease was the most lethal cancer among Thai women. Most of those diagnosed were between 45 and 60 years old.
In 2007, there were 7,000 new cervical cancer patients and 3,500 women died from the disease - about nine deaths per day, he said.
Cervical cancer could be cured if diagnosed in its early stages but about half the victims sought medical treatment when the cancer spread to other parts of their body, hence the significant loss of life and medical expense.
At the workshop yesterday officials from all provinces were urged to screen women aged from 30 to 60 for the disease.
Some 13 million Thai women are in this age bracket and the department has set a goal to cover 20 per cent of this target group a year. It says women should take the test once every five years.
The department suggested provincial authorities conduct VIA tests on women in rural or border areas (visual inspection of the cervix using acetic acid) instead of the Pap smear test used by major hospitals.
Officials were told to use electric shock treatment to destroy abnormal cells, as rural women are often unable to see doctors more than once or twice because of the distances they have to travel.
Wanchai said the National Health Security Office had paid Bt250 per case to support cervical cancer screening nationwide since the year 2005 to help women detect the disease in its early and treatable stage.
