More accurate test to come by October

A NEW, more accurate cervical cancer screening service that uses HPV testing will be rolled out in Ireland by October, the Taoiseach announced yesterday.

Leo Varadkar said Ireland would become one of the first countries in the world to introduce the new screening service, and also confirmed that free smear retests would be made available for any women concerned.

The HPV screening test was first approved by Hiqa in May 2017, and the Government is now looking at fast-tracking its introduction.

Health Minister Simon Harris said that while it would replace the way smear tests are carried out here, he urged women not to stop using the current service. ‘It’s planning to replace the way that we actually do our smear testing in Ireland.

‘It’s a much more accurate form of screening, because what it actually does is reduces human variables,’ Mr Harris remarked.

‘So at the moment you have a situation where you’re depending on individual humans looking at a screen. This is much more scientific and much more likely to be accurate.

‘I had already made the decision earlier this year that we would introduce [it] this year.

‘I expect it to be introduced in Ireland by October, and I’m now looking to see if I can introduce it earlier,’ he said.

A Hiqa report, published in May 2017, found that changing to primary HPV testing would reduce the number of screenings each woman has in her lifetime, while providing better accuracy in detecting precancerous abnormalities and early stage invasive cervical cancer.

Women will experience no change in how the cervical screening sample is collected, the report said.

The Minister stressed that the new service was an upgrade on the current smear tests, and urged women to continue to use them until the new HPV service is in place.

‘It’s very important that when you have a screening programme that you’re not in anyway complacent or arrogant to suggest it can never get better.

‘As new and better technologies come into place of course we’re going to use them in Ireland and make sure women in Ireland have access to the very best ones,’ Mr Harris said.

He added: ‘The screening programme today, as everyone has said across the board in terms of medics, politicians, advocates, it’s really important.

‘Screening does save lives. Screening does not detect all cancers, screening is not an exact science and it’s not a diagnostic tool.

‘But screening can detect precancerous cells and can prevent cancer.

‘So we do need people to continue to use it,’ he said.