Global meeting identifies cost-effective, innovative approaches to cervical
cancer prevention in low-resource areas
Jhpiego demonstrates that a "single visit approach" using Visual Inspection
with Acetic acid (VIA) is safe, acceptable, feasible and cost-effective
05 December 2005
Baltimore, Md. – Cervical cancer is the leading
cause of death among women in developing countries. From 4-7 December 2005
Ministries of Health, U.S. government agencies, leading clinical experts and
reproductive health professionals from the United States, Asia, Africa and
Latin America will convene in Bangkok, Thailand, to address cervical cancer
prevention in low-resource settings. With funding from the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation and Glaxo Smith Kline and Digene, Jhpiego, an international
health affiliate of The Johns Hopkins University, is sponsoring this meeting
"Preventing Cervical Cancer: From Research to Practice," in collaboration with
the Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Medicine.
The Royal Thai Ministry of Public
Health and Jhpiego’s President and CEO Leslie D. Mancuso,
PhD, RN, FAAN, welcome an international panel of speakers, including
Paul D. Blumenthal, Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine, Dr. Khunying Kobchitt Limpaphayom, Jhpiego's Cervical Cancer Project
Director, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University and representatives
from the World Health Organization. More than 100 participants from more than
15 countries will learn about innovative cervical cancer screening techniques
and how to implement a high-quality, sustainable program.
"Jhpiego is honored to host this
global meeting to share the proven, life-saving strategies, innovative service
delivery and training approaches, as well as, community mobilization and
education techniques. Hopefully we’ll also inspire attending countries to adopt
these screening methods. On a scientific-level, we're talking about reducing
the incidence of invasive cervical cancer in a cost-effective way. But on a
human-level, we're talking about saving mothers, grandmothers, wives, sisters
and friends," comments Dr. Mancuso.
Worldwide, an estimated 470,000
new cases occur and over 230,000 women die annually from cervical cancer.
Eighty percent of these deaths occur among women in the prime of their lives,
busy with family and child-rearing, who live in the worlds neediest countries.
Jhpiego’s Cervical Cancer
Prevention Program (CECAP) is unique in its field. In addition to conducting
research to assess new approaches and developing strategies and best practices
training materials, CECAP also demonstrates how the research is translated into
real-world programs that save lives.
In developed countries, Pap smears
remain the most common method to detect cervical cancer, however, in countries
where resources are limited, Pap smears are too costly and impractical. CECAP
has demonstrated that a "single visit approach" using Visual Inspection with
Acetic acid (VIA), linked with cryotherapy treatment, is safe, acceptable,
feasible and cost-effective. A once-in-a-lifetime screening using VIA linked
with cryotherapy is more cost effective than Pap smears and actually less
costly than no screening at all (Goldie et al, JAMA 2001). In other words this
approach offers significant public health benefits in countries where no
preventive efforts exist.
With funding from The Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation, Jhpiego has been working in Thailand and Ghana since
1999. During that time, the number of women being screened with VIA in Thailand
jumped from only 5% to as high as 80% in some regions with more than 150,000
women being screened. Ghana had less than 1% of women screened annually and now
over 15,000 have received screenings. As a result of the demonstration
projects, both Thailand and Ghana have endorsed the "single visit approach" as
an alternative to cytology-based screening.
Jhpiego has received a two-year funding
extension of $914,000 from the Gates Foundation to continue their cervical
cancer prevention work in Thailand and Ghana. With the new award, Jhpiego will
conduct an evaluation of programmatic outcomes—such as trends in service
utilization and screening coverage—resulting from the demonstration projects.
About Jhpiego
For nearly 40 years, Jhpiego, (pronounced "ja-pie-go"), has empowered front-line health
workers by designing and implementing simple, low-cost, hands-on solutions that
strengthen the delivery of health care services, following the
household-to-hospital continuum of care. We partner with community- to
national-level organizations to build sustainable, local capacity through
advocacy, policy and guidelines development, and quality and performance
improvement approaches.
About Chulalongkorn University
Chulalongkorn University is Thailand's oldest university, founded in 1917 by His
Majesty King Vajiravudh (Rama VI). It now offers more than 351 study programs in 19
faculties and 16 specialized institutes and colleges. There are almost 2,800
faculty staff in addition to modern laboratories and other facilities.
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