Cervical Cancer

Hello, everyone. I am Dr Komal, obstetrics and gynaecologist. I am presently working at JP Hospital, Noida. Today I will discuss with you about Cervical Cancer with my main focus on vaccine available for it.

As most of us are aware that it is the cancer of mouth of the Uterus. It is a most common cancer among females in our country. It affects approximately 1,22,000 females per year in our country and it is a leading cause of death due to cancer in our country. The most common age group affected is 55-59 years of age. But the recent trend is showing the difference towards the age group as well.

Pap smear is a screening procedure and it is offered to all the females from 25 years of the age group and it should be carried out after every 3 years till the 49 years of age. And after this, continue this after every 5 years till you come under 65-69 years of age.

What is the cause of cervical cancer?

You must be surprised to know that in 99% of the cases, human papillomavirus, a viral agent is the infected agent of this cancer. Only 1% of the cause is due to some other things. So, it is a viral infection that causes cancer.

As it is a viral infection, we have the vaccination in our country to fight against the cause of this disease. And the most common vaccine used is Gardasil. World Health Organisation recommends that the vaccine should be referred to all girls between the age of 9-13 years because of its high immunogenicity of this age group. THis vaccination can also be available to all the females till 45 years of age.

The only issue is that once you become sexually active, then the immunogenicity decreases. However, you must be offered and you should go ahead to take the vaccine.

Two is the second dose and that you receive after 2 months of the first dose. And six is the second dose which you receive after 6 months of the first dose.

What is the cost of the vaccine?

It costs about 2800-3000 per dose. There is no severe side effects and the most common being the injection related things.

What is the contra- indication?

There is no contra- indication. But the one important thing is that pregnant women are not recommended to take this. Once you become pregnant while taking this vaccine then you should definitely dose for the next time.

So, this vaccine is available to prevent cervical cancer in the body even in a very minute form.

Hope this video is helpful for you to get aware of cervical cancer which is killing women every day in our country.

Thank you so much.