Interesting Quote from WHO September 2011 Bulletin

We recently received a note from our colleague, Dr. Ricky Lu of Jhpiego, regarding the WHO’s September 2011 Bulletin:

One bit of good news to share … I am attaching an article from the WHO Sept 2011 bulletin.  The quote from Nathalie is quite relevant given the point of the letter we had sent to Lancet earlier this year.  Just thought to let you know that some are hearing the message—start now with that we have!

Here’s the quote from Dr. Nathalie Broutet in the news piece Screening still the ‘best bet’ for tackling cervical cancer:

“We should start to implement cervical cancer prevention and control programme with what is available, is not expensive and saves lives, such as VIA. Once you have the structure of a programme with all components in place, you can then improve the programme and consider changing the screening method with new ones that perform better and that will be, hopefully, soon on the market.”

The advantage of VIA is that women can be screened and treated at the same time. If abnormalities (precancerous lesions) are found on a woman’s cervix, they can be treated on the same day by freezing and destroying them with cryotherapy. Broutet says: “It’s very important to follow up with women who are screened positive. The single-visit approach decreases the risk of women forgetting or not being able to come back, as many live far away from health facilities. However, not all health facilities have cryotherapy equipment. In that case, active follow-up of these women will have to be done to ensure that they benefit from treatment.”

Read the entire article here.