Tema-Ghana, March 15, GNA – Men must practise good genital hygiene to avoid contracting penile cancer, a Medical Officer at International Maritime Hospital (IMaH) has disclosed.
Dr. Mrs. Anita Owusu-Afriyie, the IMaH Medical Officer at the Oncology Unit revealed that there were some individuals who had sex with different partners, “moving from one person to another without cleaning their genital organs is a recipe for contracting Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection.
“HPV may increase the risk of penile cancer men must adhere to strict good genital hygiene,” she stated and cautioned that even though a clean genital reduces the chances of attracting the disease, the more sexual partners a man has, the higher the risk of contracting HPV.”
Dr. Mrs. Owusu-Afriyie stated at the weekly “Your Health! Our Concern! A Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office initiative aimed at promoting communication on health-related and setting the medium for the propagation of health information to influence personal health choices by improving health literacy.
She explained that “penile cancer may begin as a blister on the foreskin, head, or shaft of the penis. It may become a wart-like growth that discharges blood or foul-smelling liquid” and cautioned men to seek medical attention anytime they experienced any of the symptoms.
Dr. Mrs. Owusu-Afriyie said poor genital hygiene in men was a breeding ground for the Human Papilloma Virus, which is a sexually transmitted virus that caused penile cancer.
“Half of all penile cancers are caused by certain types of HPV. There are diverse types of HPV, and some affect the genital area. You can get HPV from any skin-to-skin contact of the genital area,” the IMaH Medical Officer stated.
She said although poverty was one of the reasons in the increase in cancer-related sickness in Ghana people should inculcate good personal hygiene and encouraged men to reduce the number of sexual partners or frequency of sexual intercourse with multiple partners.
She said cancer could form wax or tumour at distinct locations in and on the skin of the penis.
Stressing that, the treatment depends also on the location and the size of the wax “a wax formed on the skin of a penis can be treated by surgery which although will not affect the function of the penis but will deform its look”.
She explained that because most people did not know their status when it comes to HPV the spread of various cancers diseases was on the rise.
