SIX areas have already been identified as screening for cervical cancer, using the visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) methodology, will be greatly extended countrywide this year.

Director of Regional Health Services, Dr Narine Singh, who made the announcement said, presently, it is being done at Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) but is to become a national project.

He said the places targeted for the extension are Mabaruma, Bartica, West Demerara Regional, Mahaicony, Linden and Leonora hospitals.

Other clinics where the process is ongoing are Campbellville and Dorothy Bailey health centres in the city.

Singh said, from January 15, a ‘train the trainer’ workshop will commence, to boost the capacity of local health workers in the different regions, who will be tasked with passing on the knowledge in the health sector.

Then, on January 18, training at the different locations will begin.
We want this to be a routine service in the health sector. Each of the returning Cuban trained Guyanese, once they pass through maternal health, will be trained to conduct the VIA,” he said.

Singh said the sessions are necessary because, presently, Guyana is dependent on the technical expertise of Dr John Varello, a consultant who previously said the VIA methodology is a quintessential tool for the prevention of cervical cancer.

Emphasis
Singh said 2010 will also see steps being taken to place emphasis on information, education and communication (IEC), as it relate to the disease and the VIA strategy.

“VIA is cost efficient and easier and produces results faster and that pap smears, with which we hope to do away,” he said.

Singh said VIA results are available within a few minutes as compared to the four to six weeks needed for pap smear findings.

Before the latest initiative, a five-day screening project was undertaken last October at the VIA Clinic, in the Maternity Unit of GPH.

In 2009 just over 3,000 women underwent tests locally and Varello said 394 tested positive for pre-cancerous cells and seven are suspected cervical cancer patients.

Although the VIA facility was not established until January 2009, work on cervical cancer has been ongoing since 2000.

Cervical cancer affects the cervix, lower portion of the uterus that connects it to the upper vagina in the female reproductive system and all women, particularly the sexually active, are being encouraged to take the test, as curative treatment has proven 90 per cent successful.

One of the two medexes at the GPH VIA clinic, Ms. Zeta Alberts said, regardless of the age, a person living with HIV should be tested.

She said anyone living with HIV, who tests negative should test repeatedly for three consecutive years while the positives are put on treatment immediately.

The other medex, Ms. Lorlene Ramsundar said women who attend the clinic are given educational talks before the actual screening.

“The talks are to make them aware and, hopefully, have them, in turn, spread the word,” she said.
Persons interested in attending