13 Feb 2019

Scottish Livingstone Memorial Hospital is this week running a week-long cervical cancer screening and breast examination campaign to clear the back log of booked clients.

The focal person for the campaign, Ms Mokgabo Ramarumo told BOPA in an interview that the objective was to intensify and strengthen cervical cancer screening through a method called Visual Inspection of the cervix with Acetic-Acid (VIA) and perform cervical pre-cancer treatment (cryotherapy) to all eligible clients in a single visit approach.

She explained that cryotherapy is a relatively simple, safe, acceptable and inexpensive method to destroy the cervical pre-cancerous lesions by freezing them using nitrious oxide gas.

Ms Ramarumo said the other objective was to sensitise the community on strategies, which would contribute to decreasing cervical cancer incidences and mortality through primary, secondary and tertiary prevention.

She explained that primary prevention deals with teaching patients about behavioural change such as sticking to one partner, the correct and consistent use of the condom to prevent the HPV transmission, while in secondary prevention stage, patients are sensitised about treatment with cryotherapy and Loop Electro-surgical Excision Procedure, which is a treatment that is used to treat pre-cancer of the cervix, and tertiary stage is all about treatment for the cervical cancer.

She said the campaign runs through Valentine’s Day so that men can be encouraged to accompany their partners as they are the ones who spread HPV.

“We want to teach men about self-breast examination in order to know their breasts,” she said.

Ms Ramarumo said their target was to screen 100 women by the end of the week, adding that they would continue to screen at Scottish and Phuthadikobo Clinic as they did VIA and one could get results on the same day and start treatment.

She also explained that their target was 25-49 years age group and for over 49 years, they do pap smears.

She also advised women not to go for screening while they are on their periods or pregnant.

Ms Ramarumo said the interval for testing was two years if the results are negative and five years if the results are positive.

One of the people who went for screening, 39-year-old Ms Aratwa Siako, encouraged people to get checked for various health ailments all the time.

She was thankful she got tips on how to take care of herself. Ends