Increase funding for cancer treatment, IPVS urges FG

The International Papillomavirus Society (IPVS) has called on the Federal Government and the all the stakeholders to increase budgetary allocation to cancer treatment in Nigeria. 

The President of IPVS, Prof. Mohammed Manga, made the call on Tuesday during an interview with Newsmen at the 2025 International Human Papillomavirus awareness Day in Abuja. 

Prof. Manga said, “The burden of cervical cancer in Nigeria has remained unacceptably high despite of both immunization and screening opportunities which has been applied by many countries in the world to reduce the excruciating pain of sending huge fortunes in investigating and treating the disease particularly at the advanced level.”

Prof. Manga advocated for more budgetary allocation by the government to treat cervical cancer in the in country.

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He stressed that Cervical cancer is a significant public health concern, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.  

“WHO revealed that 90 percent of girls fully vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) by 2030 and 70 percent of women screened for cervical cancer by 2030

He called for increased access to HPV vaccination and cervical cancer screening and improved treatment options and care for women with cervical cancer. 

“By working together, we can make progress toward eliminating cervical cancer as a public health problem and improving the lives of women worldwide.”

The Director General of National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (NICRAT) Dr. Usman Salami Aliyu who represented by the Director of Clinical Services, Prof. Musa Ali-Gombe decried that limited government resources hamper the treatment of cancer in the country.

He stressed that insufficient funding allocated to cancers treatment in the national budget and limited access to treatment facilities in the rural area causing hitches in the sector. 

The Keynote Speaker, Prof. Marc Steven said that Nigeria is having successful vaccination campaign against cervical cancer and alot people wants to take up screening which is more complex, expensive and needs a lot of results. 

Dr Maureen Umeakuawulu, Vice President, IPVS Nigeria Chapter and a Senior Consultant working with National Hospital said “For the first time we have done HBV awareness as a nation.We have been joining others globally, but today we marked it as a nation.

” We need to create awareness. People need to know that HBV is a causative agent of 99% of cancers, especially 99% of cervical cancer.And another important thing is that it is also not only cervical cancer that it causes. It causes penile cancer, oropharyngeal cancer, vulvar cancer, and also vaginal and vulvar warts.

 “it is a very important virus that we need to fight and we need to control. And the good thing about it is that you can prevent it.

“It is 100% preventable.I used to tell women that what we are supposed to prevent is not supposed to kill us. And the good thing about the virus again is that it has a long latency.

“But the problem we have in Nigeria is one, low uptake of HBV vaccination. And the second one is that our women don’t scream. If we can scream, we will control HBV infection.

“We need stakeholders to come on board. We need our political leaders to come on board. We need our governments to also come on board.

“When we are together, we will be able to control this.We will be able to control this infection. And we will be able to fight against cervical cancer. And not only cervical cancer. We will be able also to fight other cancers.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE