Paper Title
Awareness and Knowledge of Cervical Cancer among Health Workers and Women in the Wassa Amenfi East District

Abstract
Cancer is being diagnosed more and more in the developing world, and cervical cancer is one of such cancers. Cervical cancer is the commonest cancer of women in Ghana as it is the situation in most developing nations. Even though most preventable, more and more women seen at hospitals have the advanced disease. This study sort to assess the level of awareness and knowledge of cervical cancer among health workers and women in rural Ghana (WassaAmenfi East district), since almost all the patients who report with advanced disease are from the rural areas. In a descriptive cross-sectional study, respondents were interviewed using a self –questionnaire of which health workers from all the various health facilities in the district were administered and women were sampled from two sub-districts under the WassaAmenfi East district. Awareness and knowledge of cervical cancer was very poor among the non-medic population of those interviewed had heard of cervical cancer. All of health workers were aware of the disease and majority had good knowledge of the disease. Majority of health workers considered cervical cancer as a public health problem. Of these had never spoken to anyone about cervical cancer. None of the eligible respondents had ever been screened. Lack of educational programmes, cultural beliefs, the attitude of not been at risk and the lack of screening services were some of the main barriers identified. Comprehensive educational programmes for health workers and the general public are needed to increase awareness and knowledge of the cervical cancer among the general population especially women. Adequate screening services easily accessible to the people are needed if any gains are to be made in our quest to save lives from such a preventable cause of death. Keywords - Cervical, Cancer, Preventable, Screen, Diagnose, Awareness, Knowledge