About 3,000 Ghanaian women are diagnosed with Cervical Cancer every year and over 2,000 die from it each year. That is according to Mrs. Theresa Galley of the Lady Pharmacists Association of Ghana (LAPAG). She was speaking on Joy FM’s Ultimate Health programme, Tuesday. She said Cervical Cancer is the first most common cancer amongst women aged 15-44 years and constitutes almost 58% of all gynecological cancers in Ghana. Mrs. Galley said the disease is deadly, adding that at most one person dies of it in every two minutes worldwide. She has therefore advised sexually active woman and teenagers to go for screening to know their status at the risk of the disease. Mrs. Galley said though both men and women are prone to the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) - an agent which contributes to cervical cancer - men can't get the disease due to the absence of the cervix uteri which forms part of the female internal genital organs. However, she said, HPV can contribute to penile or anal cancer in men, adding that vaccines have been made available to prevent it. She also confirmed that abnormal vaginal bleeding is one of the most common symptoms of the cancer but was quick to add that in some cases, there may be no obvious symptoms until the cancer has progressed to an advanced stage and, therefore, people must find it very important to go for the screening. Contrary to the perception by section of Ghanaians that the cost of prevention is expensive than one can imagine in a developing country, Mrs. Galley observed that it would be more advantageous to people in such countries to pay a sum of GHS 300 for a life time prevention than to seek for treatment which is extremely expensive saying, “prevention is better than cure”. The most common treatment of cervical cancer usually consists of surgery in early stages, and chemotherapy or radiotherapy in more advanced stages of the disease. Cervical Cancer is a malignant neoplasm arising from cells originating in the cervix uteri. However, there is no evidence that close contacts like sex, kissing, touching, sharing meals, breathing the same air among others can spread cancer from one person to another, but the causing agent- Human Papilloma Virus- is transferable through sex, researchers say.