AS part of activities to observe Cervical Cancer Awareness, the Health Ministry, on Wednesday, took its Visual Inspection with Ascetic Acid (VIA) testing outreach to the Parliament Office on Brickdam where 21 women were tested. This year’s theme is, ‘Early Detection Saving Lives’.

Medex Lurlene Ramsoondar, who is attached to the VIA Clinic at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) said that cervical cancer is almost 100 percent preventable, and in this regard women between the ages of 20-49 years are urged to undertake the screening.
VIA is basically the use of vinegar which, when applied to the cervix, causes a reaction that enables the medical personnel to carry out the diagnostics when viewing the cervix.
VIA testing and cryotheraphy are offered at all of the hospitals; while in riverine areas such as Bartica, Suddie and Mahaicony, mobile teams are dispatched. These first-line treatment methods are 90-95 percent effective.
It allows women to be screened and treated in one visit when compared to other medical examinations such as a pap smear which may take some time for the test results to be issued. Persons, who test negative, are urged to retake the test in five years.
“We have saved a lot of lives. At the pre-cancer stage a person would not be aware, it is only at the third or fourth stage that the signs will begin to show,” Ramsoondar said.
These signs include bleeding after coitus and unpleasant odour and pains. She added that while cancer cannot be completely eradicated, much can be done to decrease the number of lives lost to this disease.
She further explained that in cases where cancer is suspected, a biopsy will be done and sent to the laboratory and the results will be available within three weeks. Subsequently, the patient will be referred to the Oncology Clinic for further treatment, where services are available free of cost.
Since 2009, over 26,000 women were screened with 150 suspected cancer cases some of which were diagnosed by the gynaecology and oncology department and 2500 women were tested positive and treated immediately.