In Latin and Central America and the Caribbean, cervical cancer represents the most common cause of cancer among women in the region with 79,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer per year and almost 40,135 died from this disease in the Americas in the Americas. It’s the 4th leading cause of mortality in women ages 15 to 64. Unfortunately, in Latin America and the Caribbean, many women do not know about cervical cancer, cancer screening availability, or treatment programs. Most Latin American and Caribbean countries offer Pap screening but lack effective treatment programs and therefore are unable to offer follow-up care for cancers detected by the Pap test or HPV test. This is unfortunate as cervical cancer is preventable when detected early.
Given these facts, the Cervical Cancer Foundation seeks to increase the abilities of healthcare providers and resources in diagnosing, managing, and treating cervical diseases. The foundation also works to increase capacity by offering specialized training in HPV-related diseases. This includes (1) collaborating with non-profit organizations to lobby legislative stakeholders to increase support for HPV vaccination and secondary cervical cancer prevention (2) training health educators to use the Con Amor Aprendemos Program to educate the community on the importance of Pap or HPV screening tests and the vaccine (3) providing cervical cancer prevention strategies within these countries.
The Con Amor Aprendemos Program has been sponsored by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), and the American Cancer Society’s South Atlantic Division. We hope to use the model previously used to train over two hundred health educators in El Salvador in other Latin American countries with high rates of cervical cancer.
Cervical Cancer Foundation has prioritized primary HPV testing using self-collection or Auto-toma as a screening modality for these countries to increase identification of women at risk for cervical cancer and the use of digital colposcopy or traditional colposcopy as diagnostic procedures to identify abnormal cells requiring treatment. Cervical Cancer Foundation has provided diagnostic and treatment tools to non-profit collaborators in these countries to facilitate detection of abnormal cells that can lead to cancer. Become one of our partners by supporting us through funds or joining us on our international outreach opportunities to teach and assist with providing cervical cancer prevention strategies to reach the WHO goal of cervical cancer elimination as a public health issue by 2030.
