Congressional Briefing on Cervical Cancer Prevention set June 19 at U.S. Capitol
WHAT: A briefing on preventing cervical cancer through screening and treatment will be held Tuesday, June 19 at 9 am in Room HC-6 of the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
WHO: Dr. Mirta Roses, Director, Pan American Health Organization, will give welcoming remarks. Hon. Silvestre Reyes, D-TX, will speak at 9:05 am; Hon. Susan Davis, D-CA, will speak at 9:10 am; Hon. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-FL, is scheduled to speak at 9:15 am; Silvana Luciani of the Health Surveillance and Disease Management area at PAHO will brief at 9:20 a.m. on the cost-effective screen-and-treat demonstration project by PAHO; Christine Baze, a cervical cancer survivor, will outline the cervical cancer awareness campaign she started through Popsmear.org; and Dr. Cristina V. Beato, Deputy Director, PAHO will give closing remarks around 9:55 a.m.
WHY: Cervical cancer is a significant public health problem, with some 87,000 new cases and 39,000 deaths in the Americas in 2002, and a mortality rate seven times higher in Latin America and the Caribbean than in the U.S. and Canada. Among Hispanic women in the United States, the incidence rate is twice as high as among non-Hispanic women.
SIMPLER SCREENING: A simpler, cost-effective and evidence-based approach is available, and the Pan American Health Organization has been working in partnership with the Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention (ACCP) to improve screening in low resource settings. A visual screening and immediate treatment (screen & treat approach) demonstration project in Peru, El Salvador and Suriname, which involved training health care providers in visual inspection (VIA) and cryotherapy treatment, community education to increase women’s participation, and integrating VIA screening and immediate treatment into routine primary health care services, has been successful. Through the PAHO demonstration projects 58,000 women were screened by VIA; 2,000 women were treated immediately with cryotherapy; and 150 women were diagnosed early with invasive cervical cancer and treated. Visual inspection screening followed by cryotherapy, which can be carried out by competent providers including nurses and trained midwives, is cost-effective. A single lifetime screen at age 35 results in a 30% mortality reduction; two lifetime screens at ages 35 and 40 years result in 70% mortality reduction.
NEW PLAN: The Pan American Health Organization is proposing a Regional Strategy and Plan of Action for Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control, aimed at Haiti, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guyana, countries with high burdens to screen 3.5 million women aged 30-49 at treat an estimated 300,000 women immediately with cryotherapy. Some 4,000 women would be diagnosed early with invasive cervical cancer and treated. This approach could reduce mortality rates by 30% by 2015.
PAHO: The Pan American Health Organization, founded in 1902, works with all the countries of the Americas to improve the health and quality of life of their peoples. It serves as the Regional Office of the World Health Organization.
For more information please contact , PAHO, Public Information, 202-974-3459.