Cervical Cancer and its Aetiology in Sub-saharan Africa: A Literature Review

Abstract

Cervical cancer represents a huge burden of non-infectious disease globally. It is the second commonest cancer in the female. There are over half a million deaths recorded every year as result of cervical cancer. The aetiological agent implicated in this disease is the human Papillomavirus. The high-risk human papillomavirus has been mostly implicated. The commonest high-risk human papillomavirus implicated in cervical cancer worldwide is type 16 and 18. The viral infection of the uterine cervical epithelium initially causes the development of precancerous lesions referred to as cervical intraepithelial lesions/squamous intraepithelial lesions which take many years to progress into cancer. The Papanicoulao smear test done for the screening of precancerous cervical lesions has been known to be effective in preventing the disease. The commonest types of cervical cancer are the cervical squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma.

Incidence of Hepatitis B and C Viruses Among the Scavengers in Kwara State, Nigeria

“…Nigeria is among the countries with a high burden of viral hepatitis with a Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) prevalence of 11% and 2.2%, respectively [28]. This study revealed that majority of the scavengers in the study are in the age bracket 21-30 years which is 45.4% that is in agreement with Irabor et al [29] which concluded that the highest population of scavengers i.e., 36% are in the age bracket 20 -29 years and Isaac et al [30] stated that majority 35.42% of respondents are between 18-28 years. In terms of education, majority of wastes scavengers in Kwara state all to the category of primary school leavers as the constitute 38.8% of total respondents and closely followed by those without any formal education which constitute Senatorial districts a higher educational certificate.…”