Lecture on HPV and cervical cancer prevention in the XIII European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week

As part of the marking of the European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week, a lecture for secondary school students and Red Cross of Serbia volunteers was organised at the Red Cross of Serbia premises on 23 January 2019. More than 60 young people attended the lecture organised by the Red Cross of Serbia and the Institute for Public health “Dr Milan Jovanovic Batut”. The representatives of the Institute, dr sc. med. Katarina Boričić and dr Bojana Milosevic talked about Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and prevention of cervical cancer, as well as the importance of screening as a secondary measure in preventing this type of cancer. This activity is part of the regular health preventive activities of the Red Cross of Serbia and the lecture was opened by Ms. Ivana Dasic Marisavljevic, Secretary of the Red Cross of Belgrade, addressing the participants.

According to the assessments by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the European Network of Cancer Registries (ENCR), Serbia is still in the group of European countries with the highest incidence and mortality rate for cervical cancer. Currently it is in the fifth place for incidence (behind Latvia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia and Moldavia) and in the fifth place for mortality (after Romania, Moldavia, Bulgaria and Lithuania).

The most important message for all women is that cervical cancer is a malign disease that can be prevented. “EARLY DETECTION MAY PREVENT CERVICAL CANCER” is a slogan that reminds of the need for women of all ages to think about their reproductive health and to save one day every year to visit their physician and use some of the available prevention methods.

The participating students and volunteers showed significant interest in the topic and participated in the discussion with their comments and questions.