Too many women are dying of cervical cancer; and they shouldn't be.

That's because a pap smear and vaccination for the human papillomavirus (HPV) which causes the cancer can save lives. Yet not enough women are being screened, and neither are enough girls vaccinated.

It's the concern of public health gynaecological oncologists Dr Vishal Bahall and Dr Gordon Narayansingh.

Bahall said the biggest challenge is breaking the stigma that cervical cancer is a sexually-transmitted disease rather than one caused by skin-to-skin contact.

It is for this reason, doctors like Bahall, who is the head of the obstetrics and gynaecology department, at the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH), are working with the Ministry of Health to develop guidelines to help women make the decision to get pap smears and also help improve the lives of those already affected by cervical cancer.

He said HPV is present in about 90 per cent of the population – female and male – but only a small percentage of women go on to develop cervical cancer. Apart from cervical cancer, HPV causes certain cancers in males.

“The majority of people have the virus, but our bodies are designed to clear the virus naturally. It takes about one to two years to be cleared, but it can be cleared. but only a small percentage go on to develop cervical cancer.

“The real tragedy with cervical cancer is that we know what causes it, mainly HPV, and we have a vaccine to prevent it, we know how to screen for it and we know how look for it, which is through pap smears.”

Yet, he said, “I see in my clinic, routinely, every week, about two or three people with it and the story is the same – they never had a pap smear done, or they haven’t done one in about 10 years.”

He explained that with the Health Ministry, “we are developing local guidelines for screening and we are trying to incorporate HPV testing in the public sector and treatment for both pre-cancerous legions as well as cancer.”

[caption id="attachment_998327" align="alignnone" width="750"] Dr Gordon Narayansingh -[/caption]

He said primary HPV screening was halted owing to the onset of the pandemic as priority had to be given to covid19 patients in need of the same machines they would have earmarked for HPV cases.

In 2013, the ministry initiated a programme to vaccinate girls – and boys – from ages nine to 12 with HPV, where district health officers went to the schools and conducted an exercise with consent from parents.

However, Bahall noted there were some hiccups as parents believed HPV was sexually transmitted and were reluctant to give permission to vaccinate their children.

“It is important to eradicate the taboo associated with cervical cancer. A lot of people in the past have associated that with sexual conduct.

“We tell patients and their parents that cervical cancer or HPV-related diseases are brought about by skin-to-skin contact and this vaccine prevents cervical cancer.”

Advancing the need for awareness of pap smears and HPV vaccination, he gave the assurance that the ministry