Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Ministry of Health stated that it had changed the standard for testing cervical cancer which originally used the Human Papillomavirus Virus (HPV) test with the HPV DNA method.
“We have also changed the standard for cervical cancer testing, which previously used the old HPV test, starting this year testing will use HPV DNA,” said Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin at a press conference in Jakarta, Tuesday.
Budi said that cervical cancer is the second most common cause of death in women after breast cancer.
Globocan data also shows that the total number of cancer cases in Indonesia in 2020 reached 396,914 cases with a total of 234,511 deaths. From this figure, cervical or cervical cancer was found in 36,633 cases or 9.2 percent of the total existing cancer cases.
Also read: Don’t underestimate vaginal discharge, it could be a precursor to cervical cancer
Budi believes that faster intervention is needed so that the results of the examination can be known immediately and treatment can be followed up according to the diagnosis. One way is to change the testing standards to speed up the detection of stages of cervical cancer suffered by women.
Detection via HPV DNA is considered faster than Visual Inspection of Acetic Acid (IVA) because the government will utilize thousands of PCR laboratories that were built during the COVID-19 pandemic. Apart from that, the Ministry of Health has also included the HPV vaccine in the child immunization program which is given to girls in class V or aged 11 years as a form of prevention from a young age.
Budi explained that improving health services for cancer sufferers also applies to other types of cancer such as breast, lung and colon (colorectal) cancer.
“What I have learned in recent times is that cancer is a very complicated disease. “Not to mention, we also need to detect how bad the impact of a cancer is and we need to carry out the entire series of anatomical pathology as fully as possible,” said Budi.
Regarding breast cancer treatment, Budi briefly said that the Ministry of Health utilizes the use of ultrasound to image the tissue in women’s breasts.
Minister of Health Budi also said that cancer can occur due to three things, namely a virus that enters the body and is difficult for antibody cells to detect, the environment, namely radiation or pollution, and the last is heredity.
“Therefore, the first thing that must be done is prevention. “Because (prevention) is cheaper and makes the quality of life much better, we must be able to detect cancer as early as possible,” said Budi.
Also read: Know the importance of HPV vaccination for men and women
Also read: Ministry of Health plans to expand HPV immunization nationally
Also read: FKUI Professor: Low screening influences the high rate of cervical cancer
2023-10-03 16:48:12
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