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Cervical Cancer Screening in Arab Countries

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Handbook of Healthcare in the Arab World

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Abstract

Approximately half million women developed cervical cancer each year, and half of this number die as a result of this diseases each year. Eighty percent of the burden of cervical cancer occurs in developing countries with no prevention and screening cancer programs. Almost all cases of cervical cancer develop secondary to infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) which does affect 80% of sexually active women at one stage. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI). Most women who get the HPV infection will clear the infection by themselves; however, the infection might persist in few women. It is the persistent high-risk HPV infection (mainly HPV 16 and 18) which caused cervical cancer. There are 14,280 new cases of cervical cancer in the Arab region in 2018 with 9,354 deaths. There is no single strategy that can be applied across all Arab countries due to variations in resource, demography, and the burden of cervical cancer in each country. Arab countries with high resources can adopt both organized screening program and HPV vaccination; however, in low-resource Arab countries, HPV vaccination in collaboration with funding agencies such as Gavi allies might be the best cervical cancer intervention strategy.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department, Sidra Medicine, Doha, Qatar

    Osman Ortashi

  2. Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Muscat, Oman

    Moza Alkalbani

Authors
  1. Osman Ortashi
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  2. Moza Alkalbani
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Pharmacology Therapeutics, University of British Colombia Dept. Pharmacology Therapeutics, VANCOUVER, BC, Canada

    Ismail Laher

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Ortashi, O., Alkalbani, M. (2021). Cervical Cancer Screening in Arab Countries. In: Laher, I. (eds) Handbook of Healthcare in the Arab World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74365-3_16-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74365-3_16-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74365-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74365-3

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