AWARENESS ABOUT CERVICAL CANCER, HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS AND ACCEPTABILITY OF ITS VACCINE AMONG FEMALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS OF PESHAWAR PAKISTAN
Sana Gul*, Aneela Javed, Sheeba Mall
Health Care Biotechnology Department, Atta-Ur-Rahman School of Applied Biosciences,
National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST), Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
ABSTRACT
Cervical cancer is the most common cancer among women all over the world. The major causative agent for cervical cancer is Human papillomavirus. Awareness and education about cervical cancer, HPV and its vaccination can help to prevent cervical cancer. Present study was a questionnaire based survey including 764 female students of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University Peshawar, Khyber Pukhtoon Khawa (KPK). KPK is considered as a relatively conservative society where talking about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) is a taboo leading to a poor management of Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Current study was conducted to assess the awareness of female university students about cervical cancer, Human papillomavirus (HPV) and its vaccine. Majority of participants were unaware about cervical cancer and its causes. Only 23.20% (175) knew that cervical cancer is a gynecological cancer. 93.50% of the participants had never heard about Pap (Papanicolaou) smear testing. Level of awareness about Human papillomavirus (HPV) as causative agent and availability of vaccine against HPV was just 11.53% and 10.87%, respectively. Notably, acceptance of HPV vaccine among the female students was 95.49% indicating a positive attitude towards treatment if the facilities are provided. Overall study indicated that although the educated young females of Peshawar are not very much aware of the cervical cancer, HPV and its vaccination but they are willing to have more awareness and proper medical facilities to address this issue. Increasing female student’s awareness would help us to attain a lower incidence and mortality.
Keywords: Cervical cancer, Pakistan, Human papilloma virus, Peshawar, Pap test
