Rohit Shishodia
The World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that 95,766 women died of cervical cancer in 2018 in South East Asia region while 1,58,000 new cases were reported of the deadly cancer in the same period.

Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO's Regional Director, South East Asia, has said that governments need to boost their efforts including vaccination, screening, detection and treatment services for everyone, everywhere to tackle the growing problem of cervical cancer.

The UN agency has urged that countries of South-East Asia Region should accelerate their efforts to eliminate cervical cancer by 2030. Speaking at the Seventy Second Session of WHO Regional Committee in Delhi, Dr Singh said that there is a need to scale up both capacities and quality for screening, treatment services and palliative care.

Dr Singh explained that it is essential to include these services in the essential services packages towards universal health coverage.