Kota Kinabalu:More women are coming forward for early health screenings, particularly during Sabah National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) outreach initiatives.
According to its Director, Suszma Khairitszi Mamat, Sabah LPPKN organised a number of outreach programmes throughout the year, covering practically all sections of the state, including the interior as far as Long Pasia.
In addition, outreach events have been done at shopping malls such as City Mall, Suria Shopping Mall, Centre Point, and the most recent, Imago Shopping Mall, in conjunction with November’s National Family Month.
“The programme has been well received everywhere we have hosted it,” Suszma said at the State LPPKN Reproductive Cancer Awareness Campaign (WcaRe) carried out at Imago Shopping Mall in conjunction with the State-level National Family Month Celebration 2023.
The WCaRe campaign was launched to support the Mammogram Test Subsidy Programme (Breast Cancer Screening) and Cervical Cancer Screening Programme (HPV DNA Test).
The campaign’s goal is to raise awareness about early cancer screening among women.
The campaign allows eligible women to receive cervical cancer screening using the self-sampling method with the HPVDNA test kit, while mammography test subsidies are provided to those who have this test performed at private mammography Centres registered with the Sabah LPPKN.
Suszma said during the programme held in Imago alone, they were able to register 197 women in the human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA subsidy. “Across Sabah, we have reached almost 5,000 people out of our 6,200 target this year,” he said.
He added that the HPV DNA test is a new method for early detection of cervical cancer that is comparable to Pap smear, except that Pap smear requires a closed space, privacy, and is performed by a nurse or doctor.
“In the case of HPV DNA, one can do it by going to the toilet and taking a tissue sample before returning it to the nurse. It’s similar to taking the Covid-19 swab test.
“Based on my observations, the response to HPV DNA is more encouraging than the response to pap smear, possibly because of the stigma connected with pap smear, such as embarrassment, fear, pain, and so on.
“However, with HPV DNA, wherever we go, at least 30 women will take the test. For example, during one of our visits to Kg Meligan, a village near Long Pasia, we managed to get 50 women.
“That is a record compared to Pap smear, where we have a difficult time getting women to take the test,” he said.
He said their outreach initiative is designed to encourage people to get early health screenings.
“Rather than hoping that people will come to the clinic we reach out to them through our outreach programmes. We also have mobile clinics that offer treatment such as the Mammogram Subsidy Programme, among others,” he said.
On that note, he encouraged everyone in Sabah, particularly women, to take advantage of the government’s HPV DNA subsidy.
“Reach out to us and we are ready to go to any place needed to facilitate the community because early breast cancer screening is very important because cancer can only be treated when detected early,” he said.
Present were Sabah LPPKN Clinical Head Dr Halimatul Saadiah Mohd Aris, among others.