Campaign against cervical cancer focuses on pap smear
This morning officials of the Ministry of Health, the Belize Cancer Society, and a team of medical practitioners from several universities in the U.S. began a one week campaign to help Belizean women defeat a disease that, with early detection, need not be fatal. News Five’s Marion Ali has the story.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Worldwide, cervical cancer is the second most common type of cancer among women, claiming two hundred and fifty thousand lives in 2005, eighty percent of which were in developing countries such as Belize. Health officials are increasingly taking a more proactive approach in urging sexually active women to take the simple, but necessary pap smear test.
Dr. Theresa Loya, Member, Visiting Team
“In the United States we’ve been able to decrease the death rate from cervical cancer by sixty percent in the last thirty years with a very simple inexpensive test called the pap smear. Unfortunately in countries such as Belize, Central America, Africa, and Asia women are not coming in for their pap smear and so this project is designed to help women understand the need for getting a pap smear so that we can decrease the death rate in these countries from cervical cancer.”
Dr. Theresa Loya is the Assistant Professor of Pathology at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, California. Loya is leading her team of medical experts who will, for this week, try to change the attitude among women in Belize through better awareness.
Dr. Theresa Loya
“We’ve been working for a year to organize this campaign with people from the Ministry of Health and as a result of this campaign, more pap smear services are available throughout the country and they’re going to try to spread them out so every woman in the country has access to free pap smears.”
The campaign has been initiated by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health under the Bi-national Border Programme. The effort is the product of close collaboration with Belize’s Consul in Los Angeles, California, Roy Young.
Roy Young, Belize’s Consul in Los Angeles, California
“In this programme there are fifteen Latin and Central American countries participating, including Belize. As Dean of the Los Angeles Consular Corp, which now comprises of the representative of a hundred countries, I played a major role in that programme. And let me say that the rational for that programme is because we do a lot of travelling and there’s cross-border traffic and we carry diseases. I’d like to say that a threat to health anywhere is threat to health anywhere. This is just the beginning of an international collaboration because we have to continue doing follow-up work.”
While follow-up is key, Health Minister, Jose Coye, says inculcating a culture of prevention is as important.
Jose Coye, Minister of Health
“My commitment as the Minister of Health and my colleagues, my associates in the Ministry of Health and of course the government, we need to bring to our country a culture of prevention. We need individuals to take responsibility for their health. As one of our good doctors wrote the book, “Your Doctor Can’t Make You Healthy.” You will have to do it for yourself.”
So just how difficult is it to take the test? We checked with Rosemarie Martinez as she walked out of the testing room.
Rosamarie Martinez, Took Pap Smear Test
“It was very easy and less painful than I thought and I’m just waiting for my results now.”
Marion Ali
“Why did you decide to come and take your exam?”
Rosamarie Martinez
“I decided I wanted to take this exam because it’s very important for us to know where we stand medically and to know if I have cancer or not, so it’s much better to come early to detect if whether or not you have cancer.”
Marion Ali
“So what would be your advice to other women out there who might be second-thinking that it’s painful or you have to go through a whole series of procedures?”
Rosamarie Martinez
“No it’s not painful number one, and the procedure is very, very easy to follow and I’d advise to come and see what it’s like.”
Marion Ali
“Are you pleased with the service that you got?”
Rosamarie Martinez
“I’m very pleased.”
The medical practitioners at the Belize Cancer Society expect to test around one-hundred and twenty-five women a day, averaging around five hundred women between now and Friday. Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.
Women who would like to take the pap smear test can drop in during normal working hours up to Thursday of this week at the Cancer Society Headquarters on Mercy Lane in Belize City. The test is free of cost. Pap smear exams are also available at other health facilities and the Belize Family Life Association in Belize City.
