Cancer screening initiatives in the Pacific
A UNIVERSITY of Otago researcher is playing a leading role in saving lives in the Pacific Islands.
Associate Prof Merilyn Hibma has just returned from a week in Western Samoa, leading a series of workshops promoting screening for and treatment of cervical cancer in island nations.
‘‘The World Health Organisation estimates around 20 women a year out of around 100,000 in Western Samoa are dying unnecessarily of cervical cancer each year,’’ Prof Hibma, of the pathology department at the Dunedin School of Medicine, said.
‘‘That would apply broadly across other unscreened populations in the Pacific, and a lot of countries are unscreened.’’
Last week, Prof Hibma ran two MBIEfunded workshops that brought together health professionals from throughout the Pacific to talk about cervical cancer screening initiatives in their countries.
New technologies offered opportunities for women in poor and/or remote communities to either be screened more easily, or screen themselves.
Experiences of communities and healthcare professionals using that equipment elsewhere held great promise for Western Samoa, she said.
‘‘It was a very exciting meeting and we had some good outcomes,’’ Prof Hibma said.
‘‘The Minister of Health has asked us to prepare a document to be taken to Cabinet, so we hope there will be progress to enable better health outcomes for Samoan women.’’
Women in Western Samoa were ready and waiting for cervical screening, Prof Hibma said.
A doctoral researcher at Otago had studied possible cultural resistance to screening and had found selftesting alleviated many of those concerns.
‘‘It’s a test that women want: we were interviewed for the Samoa Observer and a comment underneath the article said ‘We need this’, so I think the time is right, and also the technology.’’
While getting women to test or be tested was one thing, the next hurdle to be cleared was ensuring women with a positive test could then receive further care, Prof Hibma said.
‘‘Testing people by itself is completely pointless if we don’t follow up with some treatment . . . people can be trained to do this, and our vision — if Samoa shared it — is that Samoa would train people on the ground to do that work.’’
A followup meeting will be held in Australia this October, alongside the International Papillomavirus Conference.