Freetown – An age-old social belief that “what goes on under the cloth should remain under the cloth” is killing women in Sierra Leone.
“People are dying in silence,” says Dr Desmond Maada Kangbai, the head of the country’s immunization services. He explains that most women affected by cervical cancer are not willing to talk about their condition or even present themselves for screening and thus possibly get a diagnosis early enough to change the course of the disease and their life.