Where the nearest hospital is days' walk away, prevention becomes essential. The story of the Mario Sideri project in Kalongo, Uganda, working to save women from cervical cancer, one of the leading causes of death among women in Africa.
There are places in the world where reaching the nearest hospital takes days of walking, where a lack of adequate tools and specialist medical staff makes treating illness difficult, and where access to therapies is often denied to those most in need. One such place is Kalongo, in northern Uganda, where health prevention and early diagnosis remain the only tools available to save as many lives as possible.
Saving as many women as possible through an effective health prevention intervention against cervical cancer — one of the most significant causes of death among women in Africa — is the goal of the Mario Sideri project, carried out at the Dr. Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital in Kalongo.
"Every year cervical cancer kills more than 250,000 women, and 85 per cent of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide, but most of these deaths could be prevented with adequate preventive measures, such as vaccination against human papillomavirus (Hpv) and screening programmes to detect and treat precancerous lesions"
(Iarc, International agency for research on cancer, 2017).
Dr Mario Sideri, a gynaecologist and oncologist of international renown, was one of the pioneers in the fight against gynaecological cancers. He was among the first to understand the link between cervical cancer and papillomavirus and played a fundamental role in spreading awareness of the test used to identify women at risk, as well as of the vaccine. Dr Sideri passed away prematurely in 2014, aged just 61. His family, with the support of his closest friends and colleagues, gathered his great professional and human legacy and carried it far away, to Africa, to Kalongo. Where it has already begun to take root.
Thanks to the Fondazione Ambrosoli, with the support of the promoting group and in partnership with the Associazione patologi oltre frontiera (Apof), the Mario Sideri project is active at the Dr. Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital with the aim of bringing about a significant reduction in the cervical cancer mortality rate among the female population of the Agago district. An ambitious goal, but one that rests on the firm conviction of the importance of promoting prevention programmes accessible to all in the poorest countries.
Launched operationally in June 2017, the project involves the specific training of local staff (doctors and midwives), delivered by Italian volunteer doctors, to implement a V.I.A./Pap smear screening programme, diagnostic colposcopy, colposcopic treatments, in order to detect and adequately treat neoplastic and pre-neoplastic lesions, and the training of local laboratory technicians to establish a cytology service at Kalongo hospital, along with the activation of a reliable database for quality control.
This training activity is complemented by an indispensable community awareness-raising effort to promote widespread cervical screening among the female population. By strengthening women's awareness of the importance of early diagnosis, and by simultaneously working to identify strategies for implementing screening programmes, it will be possible to intervene in time, guaranteeing greater life opportunities for Ugandan women.