Last week at Partners in Hope I received word that a woman wanted to meet with me for “personal reasons.” As I was walking to meet with her, I was thinking about what problems she might have or what I might have missed. But her purpose was simple: she just came to give me a bag of dowe (fresh maize) to say “thank you” for the program to prevent cervical cancer. She had been tested about a month before, had received a good report and was so relieved! I was humbled by her making a special trip to show her appreciation.
Last week, after having many weeks of administrative work for the VIA (cervical cancer prevention through Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid) program, I was feeling discouraged about my role. It seemed like it was difficult to get many women to come to the VIA clinic and there were many barriers to integrating this program into the HIV clinic as part of their standard care. But then two women came in and reminded me of the need for this program. Continue reading “Positive Feedback”
Penny planned a training on VIA–Visual Inspection with Acetic acid (cervical cancer screening) at Partners in Hope (PIH) for this week. The gynecologist who first taught her about VIA during Penny’s visit to Malawi in 2009 is here in the country again, so Penny invited her to come and train more nurses in the procedure. Continue reading “Starting Cervical Cancer Screening”
Cervical cancer is the number one cause of cancer deaths in Malawi; not breast cancer, not lung cancer, not colon cancer, but cervical cancer which can be prevented by early detection and treatment of precancerous lesions on the cervix. Cervical cancer cases are much lower in developed countries due to screening, specifically with the Pap smear. However, Pap smears are not affordable and are not feasible in Malawi: there is only one pathologist to read them in the country and he is based in Blantyre. Visual Inspection of the Cervix with Acetic Acid (VIA) was developed previously by international healthcare providers as an inexpensive, effective way to detect precancerous changes in the cervix. If changes are detected, there are treatments available to remove the lesion to prevent it from developing into cancer. The Ministry of Health in Malawi is pushing for more VIA testing throughout the country.
Continue reading “Cervical Cancer Prevention”
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