In a scenario in which more than 1,000 women die each year in Chile due to breast cancer, raising awareness regarding the prevention of that pathology becomes crucial. For this reason, the Municipal Corporation of Florida (Comudef), through its Health Directorate, promoted, during October, an informative, counseling and mammography exam campaign throughout the entire commune.
The “Let’s Dance Together” campaign, which will tour ten sectors of Florida, seeks to raise awareness about disease prevention around a sports activity that will bring together women of different ages in an environment of music and dance. In this way, zumbathons against cancer will be promoted, which will be carried out between October 09 and 28 and are organized by the Comudef together with the Local Sports and Recreation Council (Colodyr).
In each buzz of the “Let’s Dance Together”, a certain sector of the commune associated with the respective Family Health Center (Cesfam) will be invited. All women who attend will be given information on breast cancer prevention. In addition, they will hold a short interview with a health professional, who will indicate the relevance of having a mammogram, which can even be scheduled at the time.
33 thousand exams
Each day a certain number of exams will be scheduled, which will be carried out during October -in this month of awareness in the prevention of breast cancer- in the gynecological truck. This mobile unit, since 2014, has traveled through the commune helping to detect this disease among our neighbors and thus be able to save lives. In order for those who participate in the zumbatones and can access the free mammography exam, they must be registered in the Cesfam that corresponds to their place of residence, be over 35 years old and be registered in FONASA or not have a pension. It is also key not to have taken the exam in the last 12 months.
“The work carried out in this preventive health unit is of vital importance from the point of view of early detection of cancer, since, by doing it on time, the treatments for the disease undoubtedly take on another nuance. And very good prognoses can be obtained for the person to whom these tests appear altered”pointed out Janet Fernandez Secretary General of the Municipal Corporation for Education and Health.
To date, there are a total of 33,197 mammography exams in Florida. Of this number, the itinerant truck has saved the lives of 255 women, that is, people whose exams appear altered with a possible diagnosis of breast cancer, which represents 0.77% of the total number of investigations.
Prevention is saving lives
The awareness campaign to prevent breast cancer is in line with what the Municipal Corporation of La Florida promotes and works on in preventive matters and highlights the lines of action that the Health Directorate draws each year when it comes to improving the health of the population.
Certainly, reducing inequalities, increasing Floridians’ coverage of health services and ensuring the quality of health interventions is a central axis of the work they do here.
Regarding the impact of the preventive work carried out by the Comudef against breast cancer, the neighbor Irma Carrasco, 74, indicated: “I think this initiative from Florida is excellent, they serve me well and very quickly. I get a mammogram every year with the gynecological truck. I can only thank the service”, said the woman who lives in Villa Alberto Larraguibel.
