Cervical cancer is a silent killer in the Pacific, with women in the region believed to be 13 times more likely to die from the disease than women in Australia due to a lack of health infrastructure.
It is easily treatable if detected, but because there are often no symptoms until it is too late, many young women have lost their mothers, aunts, or grandmothers.
A new screening program underway in the Pacific region offers new hope.
Women can receive test results and receive treatment on the same day, a huge improvement, particularly in the Solomon Islands, where old Pap smear tests had to be sent to Australia for analysis.
In Papua New Guinea, Hagen’s nurse, Gloria Munnull, said women from all over the region are coming to get tested and that the new program is “an answer to prayer.”
“We’re not just seeing women in the Western Highlands province; we’re seeing women from all over—women from Port Moresby and other coastal areas,” she said.
“They fly in to do this test and come back. So this project has had a big impact on a lot of women.”
Most cervical cancers are caused by the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV).
There are usually no symptoms, so it is important to get tested so that women know if they are infected.
There is a vaccine, but screening is essential for women who missed it.
Women between the ages of 30 and 59 are eligible, and Ms. Munnull hopes the program can be rolled out across Papua New Guinea.
However, there are barriers; many women who are unfamiliar with the selection process are hesitant to apply.
“In the past, many women did not want to come for cervical screening because they thought they needed to reveal their bodies to us,” she said.
“But [with the new screening] … it is well that the smear should have been given to them only for their own collection.’
Poor roads and tribal violence can also be barriers to women seeking to be tested, but Ms. Munnull urged women to come forward.
“Cervical cancer is real, and… it’s a silent killer. So we need to get tested and get tested and find out before it’s too late,” she said.
Tuvalu has a different approach
While testing low-resource screening in some of the most populous Pacific countries, Tuvalu’s small population made it an ideal candidate for testing a different approach, HPV DNA testing.
In 2021, six Tuvaluan nurses and doctors were trained to use special equipment to detect cancerous strains of HPV and how to treat precancerous lesions of the cervix.
Taotao Homasi, senior clinical nurse at Tuvalu Family Health, said nearly 1,000 women had been screened so far.
They travel to the islands to collect samples and spread awareness about cervical cancer, the risks, and screening that can help.
“We’re going through the port; it’s going to take hours to get to the islands. So we’re there for hours… doing the women’s check,” she said.
“Before we go out, we inform the nurse at the island clinic to collect these women of the right age to come in… so when we do, they’re all there.
“So we just get their swab, we do the awareness phase so they understand how to get the swab, and after we give them the information on how to get the swab, they… [take] their smears.
“And after receiving smears from there, we go to the port again and travel to other islands.
It’s a method that, along with a vaccine, aims to make Tuvalu one of the first countries in the Pacific to eliminate cervical cancer.
“If you compare…my country…we are small and small islands. We are lucky because it is easy to convey the message to other people,” Ms. Homasi said.
“So they… can come here for treatment and… we’re so lucky to get treatment for this screening.”