President of medical women in Akwa Ibom state, Dr Glory Essien, has warned young girls and ladies to avoid having multiple sex partners as the act exposes them to cervical cancer.
She made this known during Cancer Awareness Walk for Life organised by Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare in Uyo on Tuesday.
Essien, who expressed worry on the rising cases of cervical cancer among girls and women, stressed that early and continuous exposure to random sex partners was fueling the increase of the diseases.
“Our girls should stop multiple sex partners. Having random sex exposure poses a high risk of having cervical cancer as this act seriously affects the neck of the womb,” she said.
Also speaking, the Wife of the State Governor, Mrs Martha Emmanuel, charged women in the state to regularly checkup their breast in order to ascertain early signs of breast cancer.
She encouraged women to always carry out self examination on their breasts which would also enable them to detect any unusual growth on it.
“We need to protect your breasts. If we can save money to buy things for ourselves, let us also save money for medicals because early detection will save life as prevention is always better than cure.
“We must undergo regular checkups. When you notice things that are not usual on your body do not delay or overlook, go for checkup do not wait until it has spread all over your body,” she said.
According to her, “cancer is one sickness you can carry in your body without visible symptoms until when it reaches a stage and probably at that stage, it has gone far but, if we try to do regular checkups it will help us,”.
In her address, the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Dr Ini Adiakpan, warned women against stigmatising their fellow women suffering a particular sickness.
Adiakpan, who frowned at the act, maintained that many have hidden their sicknesses and died in the process because of the shame of being laughed at.
