TIJUANA A campaign that shows images of a mutilated nude female torso or a breast burning is helping thousands of women in the region get a timely diagnosis of breast cancer.
The campaign attempts to reverse a worrying trend: Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women in Mexico and the second leading cause in Baja California.
And the cancer rate is increasing in the country because 93 percent of diagnoses are made in the late stages of the disease and there is a lack of radiologists who can accurately read mammograms, according to the National Center of Gender Equity and Reproductive Health in Mexico City.
Lidia Sandoval, who is responsible for timely detection of breast cancer in Baja California, said that 71 percent of the women in the state receive a diagnosis when the disease is an advanced stage.
It's in this context that the state since September placed several billboards in heavily traveled avenues and boulevards that show the crude images that include a woman pretending to amputate one of her breasts and skulls over a female's chest.
Baja California's health agency commissioned students at the Iberoamericana University to design the ten billboards.
This effort was reinforced with fliers containing information about breast cancer that were distributed to students in the state's public universities.
All this helped raise the annual number of mammograms women took in the state from around 500 in previous years to 15,000 in the year just ended, said Sandoval, who works at the State Center for Oncology in Mexicali.
"The billboards helped us to greatly increase the number of timely diagnoses of breast cancer," she said.
She said that cancer was detected at an early stage in about 500 women. However, the true impact of the public awareness campaign to raise awareness of the need to have regular exams – will be felt in about three years.
In 2005, the death rate was 15 deaths for each 100,000 women ages 25 years or older at a national level; currently the federal health system estimates the rate at 16.7 deaths per 100,000 women, with the rate continuing to increase.
The rate is trending upward because the programs to address the disease have begun relatively recently and their impact will not be seen until years later, Sandoval said.
There are several risk factors associated with this disease, including having a relative that had it, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle.
Many medical experts in Mexico and the United States urge women to perform self-exams regularly and to get regular mammograms after a certain age. The disease is much more curable when detected at an early stage.
Omar.millan@sandiegored.com
[sidebar]Free exams in Baja California
Baja California's Health Department is offering free mammograms in17 health centers and five general hospitals in the state.
The exam lasts only minutes but an appointment is needed. Information in Tijuana:
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[sidebar]More information at:
(01152) (664) 6883804 or
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