HEALTH

The Batehachas’ Foundation is an independent, nonprofit organization based in Buea with a network of programs that promote community development in the country.

According to a 2011 study conducted in Buea, in South West Region on the perceptions of risk and barriers to cervical cancer screening, 35 percent of the participants did not think they were at risk of cervical cancer and felt no need to screen for the condition. In this study, 22.1 percent of the respondents mentioned fear of abnormal results as the reason they would not want to be screened for cancer while 11.4 percent mentioned cost. Just 12.3 percent of the participants reported having been screened at least once before.

The more common Pap smear test requires more highly trained health providers, access to equipment and supplies, a cytology laboratory, arrangements for communicating results to screened women and a facility for confirming diagnosis.

The constraints of limited infrastructure and resources in most developing countries and the low level of awareness of opportunities for preventing the disease stimulated the formation in 1999 of  the international Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention (ACCP), with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The purposes of the ACCP are to develop and evaluate innovative approaches in order to reach more women at high risk of cervical cancer with effective and feasible screening and treatment services and to persuade policymakers and program managers to make it a priority.