Cervical cancer mobilizes MDs

While there have been a home-testing device created to make pap smears cheap and easy abroad in the fight against cervical cancer, doctors in the U.S. have been organizing to make some serious domestic changes, reports the Washington Post.
The fact of the matter is that 4,000 women in the U.S. will die from cervical cancer this year, although every death is preventable.
In response, a $25 million federal program is going into effect to have communities recruit “patient navigators,” or volunteers (a trusted member of the community who speak their patient’s language) who will push for pap tests and aid the diagnosed.
Dr. Stephen McPhee of the University of California put his two cents in:
“Cervical cancer shouldn’t be a cause of death anymore…Yet here we are in 2005 dealing with a problem that should have been fixed 25 years ago. It’s a bad reflection on the U.S. health-delivery system.”
McPhee started his own program in California working against cervical cancer among Vietnamese immigrants, who have the highest incidence of the disease in the nation.
A new report from the National Cancer Institute triggered this recent action against the disease. The report digs into the reasons behind why so many women are unnecessarily being diagnosed too late, which includes poverty, age, and cultural factors.
To download the report, click here.