Former President Bush to Help Battle Cervical and Breast Cancer

President George W. Bush and wife Laura

The battle against breast and cervical cancer does not lie solely within the United States. In other countries, the rates of incidence are at an alarmingly high rate. Next month Former President George W. Bush and wife Laura Bush are heading to Africa for four days to visit medical clinics and meeting with government and health officials. He views this upcoming trip as a "natural extension" of the program launched while he was in office that targets AIDS in Africa.

This new program, called the Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon initiative has three goals:

• To reduce deaths from cervical cancer by an estimated 25% from the women who are screened and treated in this program
• Significantly increase access to breast and cervical cancer prevention, access and treatment
• To create innovative models that can be scaled up and used globally

This initiative and its founding members seek to collaborate and support national and local leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. You may be asking, what is the link or relationship between cervical cancer and HIV? It is well known that those infected with the HIV disease will have immune systems that are weaker, and therefore more susceptible to other disease including cancer. Cervical cancer is 4-5 times more common in women who are HIV+ than those who are negative.

Those behind this program believe combining HIV and cervical cancer prevention, screening, treatment and care will be a cost-effective way to successfully battle both diseases. Especially when as Dr. Eric G. Bing, director of global health at the Bush Institute, finds that it's often more difficult for African women to reveal they have cancer of the reproductive organs than to say they have HIV.  He said this is because there are more support groups and treatments available for HIV than cervical cancer. Wow!

What do you think? Do you think combining efforts will result in lower rates of infection? 

Sources of Information:
Associated Press
Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon Initiative
USA Today