Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer of women’s, next to breast cancer.
Cervical cancer however, is more dangerous, with only 2 or 3 surviving
from the disease for every 4 that survives breast cancer.
It is estimated that almost 70,000 Filipinas have cervical cancer with 7,000 acquiring the disease every year.
The leading cause of cervical cancer is the human papillomavirus or HPV which is also one of the most common causes of sexually transmitted infections in the world.
Women
who have had sex soon after they had their first menstruation, who had
several sexual partners, are smokers or are regularly exposed to
secondary smoke, have five children or more, and have weak immune
systems are susceptible to acquiring cervical cancer.
The most
dreadful fact about cervical cancer is that it doesn’t have any cure.
Prevention is your only protection against cervical cancer.
It is
highly preventable. According to the National Institute of Health
(USA), the correct and consistent use of condoms demonstrated a strong
protection against low and high-risk types of HPV infection among women.