The past month of January was dedicated to the fight against cervical cancer, and on that occasion the Association for the Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women sent a reminder to the public that the Government has reduced the budget for the Early Detection of Malignant Diseases Program for 2023 by 2 million denars in relation to 2022.

In a conversation with Utrinski Pechat, Borjan Pavlovski from the ESE Association warned that in Macedonia, every year around 40 women die from cervical cancer, while over 350 women are treated annually at the University Oncology Clinic and undergo aggressive treatments. with chemotherapy and radiation because the disease was detected at an advanced stage.

- The Ministry of Health reduces the budget for screening year after year, a period when the number of women suffering from cervical cancer is increasing in Macedonia. Due to insufficient budget funds and inadequate organization in 2021, only 22% of women of the target age group will be covered by cervical cancer screening, which is far from the coverage in the countries of the European Union, which amounts to over 75% of women - he emphasized Pvalovski.

According to him, the detection rate of cervical cancer in an advanced stage can be reduced, but for this it is necessary to urgently increase the budget of the cervical cancer screening program.

- Finances are the main problem, that's why we often alert the authorities that there is a possibility of prevention of malignant diseases. In addition, it is necessary to increase the activities for the education of women, as well as to foresee special activities at the community level for increased coverage of women from vulnerable groups - emphasized Pavlovski.

You can watch the entire interview with Borjan Pavlovski on the following video: