India tops cervical cancer deaths: US study

With nearly 73,000 women dying every year, India now tops the world in cervical cancer deaths according to a report released today by a US-based research and advocacy group.
India represents 26.4 per cent of all women dying of cervical cancer globally, with China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia and Thailand also showing high death incidence, says the "Cervical Cancer Global Crisis Card" released by the Cervical Cancer-Free Coalition.
According to the report card, cervical cancer kills an estimated 275,000 women every year and 500,000 new cases reported worldwide. This entirely preventable disease is the second largest cancer killer of women in low and middle-income countries, with most women dying in the prime of life, it said.

Using data from the WHO, United Nations, the World Bank and IARC Globocan, the Crisis Card has ranked 50 countries in the descending order of cancer mortality rates.
India, China, Brazil, Bangladesh and Nigeria represent more than half of the "global burden of cervical cancer deaths," says the US based body basing its study on global rankings.
According to the Crisis Card, Australia has the lowest cervical cancer mortality rate, which is due to the successful rollout of a comprehensive package of HPV vaccines, treatment and prevention.

The Crisis Card report also highlighted the startling disparities between women in the developed and developing world personified by cervical cancer.

"A woman in Zambia is 25 times more likely to die from cervical cancer than a woman in Australia and India has 750 times more deaths than Norway. This level of inequity is also reflected across gender indicators with girls less likely to attend school but more likely to be malnourished and married as a child," said the report.
Recent data released by India's Health Ministry based on the National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP) report in 2009 the number of cervical cancer cases were 101938 which has increased to 107690 in 2012.
In Uttar Pradesh a total of 17367 cases were reported in 2009 and it increased to 18692 in 2012. After Uttar Pradesh the number of cases of cervical cancer in 2012 which has shown an increasing trend are Maharashtra (9892), Bihar (9824), West Bengal (8396), Andhra Pradesh (7907), Tamil Nadu (7077) and others.

"Cervical cancer can happen to anyone. Certain women are at greater risk. These include women who started sexual activity at an early age, had multiple pregnancies, had multiple partners themselves, or their partners have multiple partners," said Dr Neerja Bhatla, Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).