(ThyBlackMan.com) As men, what is our responsibility in this? While studies have shown that HPV and genital warts only act as irritants in men and generally go away over a few years, with women it’s a whole different story.
A study found that black women diagnosed with cervical cancer die at a rate of 10.1 per 100,000 and white women at a rate of 4.7. Why the disparity of more than double the deaths per 100,000?
Factors noted were late diagnosis and the likelihood that African Americans probably do not have as good of coverage. This leads to black women being diagnosed at a more advanced stage of the disease which makes it harder to treat. This is a tragedy as you can clearly imagine this likely rolls over into the treatments of every other disease out there. And if African American women don’t have adequate coverage, we could also guess that perhaps the men are in similar boats.
A recent article published by the American Sexual Health Organization (ASHA) discussed new research which find women in the US are dying at higher rates than we realized due to cervical cancer. Sadly, the study found this was especially the case with black women.
The CEO and President of ASHA, Lynn Barclay, noted that the racial disparities are avoidable and completely not acceptable. “It is heartbreaking that black women continue to suffer an unfair burden of cervical cancer mortality, and a national embarrassment that we’re not developing and funding programs to make sure the most vulnerable communities get the care they need.
“We have the tools to prevent cervical cancer and let me be clear: not one single woman need die from this disease,” she was quoted as saying.
Since our teens, sexual health and safety has been preached to us, but knowing that our sisters are at serious risk should make us even more vigilant. It sort of falls on deaf ears over time, but when it’s a life and death matter, we just have to be more careful and do what’s right.
Without this new information that was found by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University, the authors of the original study mis-estimated the real numbers that revealed a massive disparity of 44% between white and black women.
Researchers at the University examined the death rate (ie. the mortality rate) were not correctly counted because they failed to take into account ladies that had a hysterectomy and therefor no longer were at risk of cervical cancer (due to no longer having a cervix). Looking at women who still had their cervixes only, the researchers found that black women had a death rate of 10.1 per 100,000 up from 5.7 per 100k. White women were up 4.7 compared to the old numbers of 3.2 per 100,000.
13,000 new cases of cervical cancer arise each year in the United States according to estimates from the American Cancer Society and these result in an estimated 4,000 fatalities.
The Cause
The most common viral infection of the reproductive track is HPV (Human papillomavirus) and most men and women who are sexually active will get it as some point in there lifetime. The most common time is when men and women are just beginning to become sexually active.
It does not require penetration and skin to skin contact is a proven method of transmission.
As stated earlier, usually with men and most women, 90% of the time HPV can clear up over time with proper immune fortification and over the counter solutions. There is a small percentage of cases, however, which can lead to cervical cancer.
Staff Writer; Craig Moore
