Citylife Business

The Roche HPV Workshop was aimed at fighting against cervical cancer in Namibia, driving access to early screening using self-sampling technology aimed at transforming cervical cancer prevention.

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE BUSINESS Editor-In-Chief
One of the world’s leading businesses in the area of diagnostics and biomedical medical manufacturing and supplies, Switzerland’s Roche Diagnostics has just successfully held workshops in Namibia aimed at curbing the unnecessary deaths of women suffering from cancer in that country.

The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Workshop discussed Namibia’s cervical cancer elimination strategy. The discussion – focused on fostering collaboration with key stakeholders across the healthcare ecosystem to propel the country forward in eliminating cervical cancer by 2030. Those who participated included Her Excellency Monica Geingos, First Lady of Namibia; and the Chief Executive Officer of the Cancer Association of Namibia (CAN), Rolf Hansen.

Cancer in recent years has become a problematic disease world-wide, but in Africa combating the disease by detecting it at its early stages and timeously treating it has proven to be difficult for a number of reasons, mainly resources and general lack of awareness about the disease, e4spciallybin working class communities. The statistics are not pleasing, especially when it comes to women.

Every year, over 604,000 women worldwide are diagnosed with cervical cancer and approximately 342,000 die from this preventable disease caused by infection with Human Papillomavirus (HPV).

Nearly nine out of 10 women who die from cervical cancer live in low- and middle-income countries. For patients living in areas with limited healthcare resources, increasing access to screening and decreasing barriers to sample collection are critical factors in preventing this disease.

Namibia has a population of 855,578 women aged 15 years and older who are at risk of developing cervical cancer. Current estimates indicate that every year, 375 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 214 die from the disease. And cervical cancer ranks as the second most frequent cancer among women in Namibia.
Merilynn Steenkamp, General Manager South Africa & SADC countries, Roche Diagnostics says, “Leveraging Roche’s experience in high-burden disease testing and expanding self-testing diagnostics capacity, we are making critical progress in the fight against cervical cancer.”
Rolf Hansen, Chief Executive Officer of the Cancer Association of Namibia (CAN), concludes, “This workshop has been an important milestone in the fight against cervical cancer. Through public-private partnerships and collaboration, the 90-70-90 goal is within reach. We are excited to see the progress unfold over the next seven years.”
The WHO recommends primary HPV screening as part of these targets, this along with self-sampling expands access to HPV screening options, reaching more women.

About Roche
Founded in 1896 in Basel, Switzerland, as one of the first industrial manufacturers of branded medicines, Roche has grown into the world’s largest biotechnology company and the global leader in in-vitro diagnostics. The company pursues scientific excellence to discover and develop medicines and diagnostics for improving and saving the lives of people around the world.
“We are a pioneer in personalised healthcare and want to further transform how healthcare is delivered to have an even greater impact. To provide the best care for each person we partner with many stakeholders and combine our strengths in Diagnostics and Pharma with data insights from the clinical practice.
In recognising our endeavour to pursue a long-term perspective in all we do, Roche has been named one of the most sustainable companies in the pharmaceuticals industry by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for the thirteenth consecutive year. This distinction also reflects our efforts to improve access to healthcare together with local partners in every country we work.
Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan,” the company states.
For more information, please visit www.roche.com.