MANZINI- The lack of priority given to women’s health needs particularly those not related to maternity and family planning has been cited as a major setback in the health fraternity.
This was an observation made by the Swaziland Breast Cancer network Director Thobile Dlamini.
She was addressing nurses from hospitals and clinics around Manzini on Friday who had converged at Greater Alpha for an awareness creation workshop on breast and cervical cancer.
Dlamini said in Swaziland, cervical cancer is the most common cancer among females. ‘There was a need to reframe women’s health in terms of human rights and to promote an integrated vision of reproductive health,’ she said.
As October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, Dlamini said they have seen the need to create awareness amongst the health workers as they are the first line of contact with patients. The awareness workshop started in Manzini and will move on to all the other regions.
It was noted that older women rarely attend clinic and it is up to nurses to approach them when they have brought their children to hospital or rather have come to access other services. ‘Nurses should not just sit and expect that the elder women to speak, they must make the initiative to find out if people who come to access their services at the clinic are aware of the cancers,’ emphasised Dlamini.
She encouraged nurses to change their attitudes when dealing with clients if they want to create a nation that knows how to demand a facility that belongs to them. Dlamini said early detection of cancer is very helpful to the patients as there are minimum chances of survival when the disease is detected at its advanced stages. She encouraged all women who have had sexual intercourse to go for screening every two years of their life and HIV positive women should be screened every year because they are at higher risk.
source: times.co
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