NEW DELHI, Dec 23: India today launched its first indigenously developed device for screening and early detection of cervical cancer, which kills over 74,000 women in the country every year.
Launching the low-cost “AV-Magnivisualiser” device developed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said it will help in early detection of cervical cancer among adolescent girls and women, thus helping in save many lives.
Designed and developed at Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology (ICPO), Noida, working under ICMR, the device will cost about Rs 10,000 and is much lower as compared to the cervical cytology method used at present in medical colleges, the equipment of which costs over Rs eight lakh.
“I am extremely happy and I congratulate the scientists involved in the cutting-edge level. I hope the cost-effective device will be available in the market in the next eight months to help ensure easy screening and early detection of cervical cancer,” Azad said.
The Minister said with this device it will be easy to screen and detect cervical cancer in its early stages, thus making treatment more effective.
“We will also ensure proper training of nurses and manpower for using the device in the coming months,” he said, adding that screening for cervical cancer is available only in regional cancer institutes and medical colleges at present.
He said the equipment presently being used is expensive, as a result of which not many medical colleges can afford it.
This device, far more cost effective, will be first rolled out in the district and sub-district community health centres (CMCs) and subsequently in the primary health centres (PHCs), he noted.
Since all PHCs do not have lady doctors and nurses, staffing and training will form an important part of the roll out plan, he said.
Cervical cancer, which involves the opening of uterus in a woman’s vagina, is a leading cause of cancer deaths among women in most parts of developing world.
In India, cervical cancer is the commonest malignancy among women. The current estimates indicate that approximately 1.32 lakh new cases of such cancer are diagnosed and about 74,000 deaths occur annually, accounting for nearly one-third of global cervical cancer deaths.
Noting that cervical cancer is still the top disease that kills women in rural India, as most cases go undetected till the last stage, Azad said the deaths due to it accounted for 9 per cent of total deaths due to cancer in 2010.
He said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had launched the “National Programme on Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, CVDs, and Stroke” in 2010 in 100 selected districts, taken up initially as pilot project in 21 states, to address the challenges posed by the rapidly increasing burden of noncommunicable diseases, particularly Cancer, Diabetes and Cardiovascular diseases.
ICMR’s Director General V M Katoch said this will benefit a large number of women in the country and bring down the rate of morbidity and mortality due to cervical cancer, which is high at present.
Cervical cancer, which starts from certain pre-cancerous states/lesions and takes about a decade for cancer to develop, can be halted if early detection and appropriate treatment of pre-cancerous lesions are taken.
He said the accuracy and efficacy of the device has been evaluated through tests in five regions during the past two years and is around 95 per cent.
He also said that this device has a white light source with variable interchangeable magnification and it can be operated on 12 Volt battery in rural and semi urban areas where electric supply is not regular.
AV-Magnivisualizer has been found to pick up 1.5 times more high-grade pre-cancerous and cancerous lesions than the ordinary tungsten light.
Ministers of State for Health and Family Welfare Santosh Chowdhary and A H Khan Chowdhury, besides Health Secretary Keshav Desiraju, and Secretary Department of AIDS Control Lov Verma were also present at the launch, among other officers and scientists. (PTI)
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