State-run pharmaceutical enterprise Bio Farma is preparing to launch CerviScan, a domestic-made innovative polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based early detection kit for the human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer.

CerviScan could be an alternative for Indonesian women who are hesitant to undergo a cervical cancer examination because they are afraid of it, president director of Bio Farma Honesti Basyir said in a statement issued on Monday.

“Cervical cancer is a silent killer because (usually) the symptoms are only known after (it enters) an advanced stage. Hence, prevention and early detection are needed to diagnose the disease earlier, so it will not be too late to be treated,” he added.

CerviScan requires users to collect their urine so that it can be examined in a laboratory, thus it is hoped that the kit can give more comfort to women using it, he informed.

“Through this method, we hope to increase the cervical cancer screening rate,” he said.

Bio Farma held a talk show on “The Silent Killer: Recognizing and Detecting Cervical Cancer since Early Stage” on January 22, 2023, which was a part of CerviScan’s pre-launch, to build people’s awareness on ensuring early detection of the disease.

Director of institutional relations at Bio Farma, Sri Harsi Teteki, said that Indonesian women should be more concerned about their own health.

“Through this event, it is hoped that women can get to know more about cervical cancer. As Indonesian women, we must continue to protect ourselves by maintaining our health,” she emphasized.

Meanwhile, the head of Bio Farma’s domestic marketing division, Fitri Puspadewi, noted that the screening rate for cervical cancer is still relatively small in Indonesia because most women are hesitant to do it.

She said she hoped that CerviScan would help Indonesian women detect the disease at an early stage, and thereby, improve the quality of public health, especially for women.

Her party conducted clinical trials of the cervical cancer diagnostic kit on 900 participants.

According to the Global Cancer Observatory, cervical cancer ranks second in terms of the number of patients in Indonesia. More than 80 Indonesian women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every day and 2 Indonesian women die of the disease every 120 minutes.

The Global Cancer Observatory also recorded that only 5 percent of women in Indonesia participate in cervical cancer screening.

Source: Antara News