Colposcopy in DRC, now possible

Agir Ensemble and its medical clinic, Hope Medical Center (HMC) is please to announce to all that it has been able to launch the Colposcopy service this month of May 2013. It is clearly known that cervical cancer is the most common cancer in prevalence and in mortality in D.R.Congo and the second one is breast cancer. For a very long period no colposcopy could be done in Congo and Agir Ensemble took this program in mind as its first priority for women of Congo. I had assisted to unnecessary deaths by cervical cancer, a fully preventable disease, in many hospitals in the country and no body could stop it happen. No one could imagine that colposcopy could be possible in this country; no one could help women getting access to this service in the country ! But we did it! We have begun this fight against cancer, especially cervical cancer and breast cancer since 2004 (there are now 11 years), a fight for a long period and we went slowly but surely towards our goal to make available prevention and early detection services for cancers. And now colposcopy is possible in D.R. Congo, city of GOMA at the east of the republic. The coloposcopy center was launched on May 2, 2013 and this there we have got 5 women attending the service among them 1 has advanced cervical, 1 has precancer (CIN) and 3 have negative results. The main challenge we have is that people in our country are not aware of what is colposcopy and what is its relevance, that is why women didn’t begin coming to this service. We have begun awareness campaign for women in the city to increase the number of people who consult for colposcopy. The second challenge is that most of them don’t have possibility of paying for their colposcopy examination and they need a service free of charge. It could be better to begin with a pilot project for a specific number of women and this could let people aware of the service and then they can pay for it while they are aware of its relevance. Personnaly, I’m very pleased and proud to be the first person to initiate colposcopy in the Democratic Republic of Congo and I’m sure that in the coming days this service will serve also other neighbor countries like Rwanda, Burundi, etc. I would like to thank greatly the IFCPCP for the training provided to me, especially prof Walter Prendiville, prof Lynnette Denny, Patrick Walker, Fidelma and others. I would like to thank also prof Walter for the donation of the colposcope and other materials. Many thanks to Mrs. Robin Glazer in New York for her contribution, many thanks also to prof Linus Chuang in New York at Mount Sinai School of Medicine for the additional training in colposcopy and mammography. The women seen here is the one who has inaugurate our colposcopy service at HOPE MEDICAL CENTER (HMC). The date of June 1, 2013 will be a historical date for me, for all the team and for our organization because it is the date that we get the first women with positive result on colposcopy (CIN) after examination of 5 women during the month. Our young service needs sustainability and strength, support, help and donations from evry one to be more effective to help women in the region. We have a long road ahead of us to let women adhere to it and to increase service utilisation indicators for colposcopy. Done in Goma, June 3, 2013. Mateus Kambale Sahani, M.D. Director of Health Department/Agir Ensemble Medical director of Hope Medical Center (HMC).