Poor women in southern provinces

HCM City (VNA) -- Poor women in southern provinces will receive free
gynecological check-ups and treatment for cancer under a new programme for
prevention and control of cancer in women.

Check-ups will be available to 150,000 to 200,000 women in 32 provinces and cities
in the south during the year, according to Pham Viet Thanh, deputy head of the
Ministry of Health’s Mother- Child Health Department.

Leading hospitals in the field in HCM City including Tu Du Hospital, Hung
Vuong Hospital and Oncology Hospital will provide training courses for
doctors in provincial-level hospitals and health centres, and work with them to
perform free surgeries for poor women with cancer.

The programme will not only benefit poor women but also doctors in targeted
provinces and cities in terms of professional learning, when experienced doctors
from large hospitals in HCM City are dispatched to provincial-level hospitals and
health centres to perform health exams and surgeries, Thanh said.

An estimated number of 3,000 women are at risk of breast cancer every year, 2,550
at risk of cervical cancer and 1,000 women at risk of ovarian cancer, according to
figures from the Ministry of Health.

About 1,320 out of 3 million married women in HCM City are at risk of having
one of these common cancers every year.

The programme is funded by the HCM City Sponsor Association for Poor Patients in
collaboration with large hospitals in HCM City and reproductive health care
centres in 32 southern provinces and cities.-Enditem