European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week

(January 18 - January 24, 2021)

The Red Cross of Serbia, in partnership with the Institute of Public Health of Serbia, Dr. Milan Jovanović Batut, and on the occasion of marking the European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week, organized the training of educators for volunteers and employees of Red Cross branches. The training was attended by 33 participants, and these trainings are part of regular health-preventive activities, which means that the Serbian Red Cross later in the field continues with education and raising public awareness of the importance of preventive activities. The lecture was given by Dr. Katarina Boricic.

European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week is marked from January 18 to 24 2021, in order to raise women's awareness about cervical cancer and ways to prevent it. In this way and during this week, we are transmitting a message about the importance of available prevention measures in our country, in order to prevent getting sick and dying from cervical cancer.

The main message to all women is that cervical cancer is a malignant disease that can be prevented. "BETTER TO PREVENT THAN TO TREAT - WE WILL BEAT CERVICAL CANCER WITH REGULAR CONTROL" is the slogan of the 15th European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week, which encourages women to think about their reproductive health, and to set aside a day during the year to visit their doctor and makes use of some of the available preventive examinations.

Based on the estimates of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) for 2018, Serbia is in the group of countries with high morbidity and mortality rates in Europe. When it comes to cervical cancer, Serbia is in fifth place in Europe, after Latvia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia and Moldova. Also, our country ranks fifth in Europe in terms of women dying from this type of cancer. According to the data from the Cancer Registry of the Institute of Public Health of Serbia "Dr Milan Jovanović Batut", during 2018, 1,057 newly diagnosed women with cervical cancer were registered and 427 women died from this type of cancer in Serbia.