Future Science Group explains that “a new study undertaken in Zambia shows that, using setting-appropriate human resources and technology, morbidity and mortality from cervical cancer among HIV-infected women can be reduced. The study’s lead author is Dr Groesbeck Parham, Professor of Gynecologic Oncology and Infectious Diseases, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Director of the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia’s Cervical Cancer Prevention Program. ”

Worldwide more than half a million women are diagnosed with cervical cancer early and more than a quarter of them die. Unfortunately in poorer countries like Zambia less than 5% of woman are screened for cervical cancer.  However, Future Science Group explained “one prevention method that has been extensively evaluated is visual inspection with dilute acetic acid (VIA) combined with same-visit treatment by cryotherapy. This screening method has been shown to be safe, acceptable, and clinically effective in reducing cervical cancer incidence and mortality.

The new study is the first to evaluate this approach in routine program implementation settings in the developing world. The authors launched the Zambian Cervical Cancer Prevention Program, which targeted HIV-infected women, with the ultimate goal of expansion to all Zambian women to decrease cervical cancer-associated morbidity and mortality. They systematically analysed the screening implementation efforts by measurement and modeling of the real world program effectiveness through measurement of outcomes of program uptake, screening test efficacy, and treatment effectiveness, and then extrapolation of its impact on mortality reductions.



The full article is available at http://www.futuremedicine.com/toc/hiv/4/6

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