Introduction: Cancer of the cervix is the second most common gynecologic malignancy in the world due to lack of awareness and poor uptake of cervical cancer screening services especially in low income countries. In Cameroon, though there is a national cervical cancer-screening program the service has been limited to some main cities without an appreciable impact. Aims: The objectives of this study were to determine the knowledge, attitude, practice towards Pap smear screening, thus evaluating its suitability as a screening procedure in Cameroon, through this pilot study in the Buea Health District. Methods: The study was a community-based cross-sectional descriptive survey that involved 309 women. Women from 18 years were enrolled for the study from 9 th October to 20 th November 2013. Results: The mean age of the participants was 32.3 years (SD = 11.7 years). Most of the women (29.5%) who had gone for the Pap test were in the 41 -50 years age group. Only 3.6% of the study participants had "good" knowledge of cervical cancer and Pap smear screening. Approximately 20% of the women had a previous Pap smear test with 55.7% of them having the test just once. Eighty two percent of those who had secondary and tertiary levels of education had never had a Pap smear test. Awareness of risk factors for cervical cancer was low.* Corresponding author. G. E. H. Ekane et al.. 227Fear of pain, positive results after screening, non-curability of cervical cancer were some factors associated with a low Pap test uptake (p < 0.05). Conclusion: There is poor knowledge and perceived barriers by women about Pap smear screening and follow-up services. For an impact to be made in the prevention of cervical cancer, Pap smear screening is not the preferred method because of these limitations in this community.

Introduction: According to WHO, globally an estimated 585,000 women die each year from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. One of the targets of Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG 5) is to reduce maternal mortality by three quarters of the 1999 value by the year 2015. However, three years to 2015, very little is known on the trends in maternal mortality ratio, causes of maternal deaths and their associated factors in the Tiko Cottage Hospital (TCH) and Limbe Regional Hospital (LRH) in the SouthWest Region, Cameroon. Methods: This was a retrospective, analytical cross-sectional study that was carried out from 1 st January 2000 to December 2012. After obtaining ethical clearance, the records of cases of maternal deaths and a reference group of women who survived after a pregnancy during the same period were carefully reviewed. The data were analyzed with SPSS 10 and EPI 3.5.1. Results: There were 14,480 live births and 132 maternal deaths during the study period, giving an adjusted Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of 892/100,000 live births. Patients' age ranged from 15-40 years (SD 2.3). We observed a downwards trend of Ma-* Corresponding author. G. E. Halle Ekane et al. 772 ternal Mortality Ratio (MMR). Seventy-eight percent of the maternal deaths were due to direct causes. The triad of hemorrhage (54.5%), abortions (17.4%), and eclampsia (10.6%) was the leading cause of death. HIV-related complications and hepatitis constituted the main indirect causes of maternal death. In 85.4% of cases, maternal deaths were avoidable. Lack of blood for transfusion and late referral of cases were the main avoidable factors. Patients less than 35 years (p = 0.01), no antenatal care (ANC) (p = 0.001), unemployment [OR = 1.52; 95% CI: (1.38-48.28); p = 0.02] were significantly associated with maternal deaths while grand multiparity [OR = 1.20; 95% CI (0.30-4.86); p = 0.79], marital status [OR = 1.20; 95% CI: (0.70-2.07); p = 0.51] and education level were not significantly associated with maternal deaths. Conclusion: The trend shows that there was no appreciable decline in maternal mortality, implying that attaining the objectives of MDG 5 is very unlikely. Therefore, to meet the MDG 5 target, we recommend that, there should be amelioration towards obstetric emergencies care and health education by health care providers.

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6 million sexually active women are at risk of developing cervical cancer in Cameroon. About 2000 cases are reported annually with 55% of them being fatal.  The fight against this disease is hampered by both poor material and human resources. Methods of prevention are divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary. Vaccination is one of the primary methods of prevention of cervical cancer. Despite the avoidable nature of this disease, there is a growing hesitancy in society to allow girls to be vaccinated.  The objective of this study is to find out the characteristics of parents who allow their daughter(s ) to be vaccinated, despite the negative growing opinion about vaccination. Sensitization on the importance of prevention of cervical cancer by the public authorities, financial empowerment of women, and level of education seem crucial to increase the uptake of vaccination against the Human Papilloma Virus.