Abstract
It is estimated that Haiti has the highest incidence of cervical cancer in the Western Hemisphere. There are currently no sustainable and affordable cervical cancer screening programs in Haiti. The current status of screening services and knowledge of health care professionals was assessed through a Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices survey on cervical cancer screening and prevention. It was distributed to Project Medishare for Haiti health care workers (n = 27) in the Central Plateau. The majority (22/27) of participants stated pre-cancerous cells could be detected through screening, however, only four had ever performed a pap smear. All of the participants felt a screening program should be started in their area. Our data establishes that knowledge is fairly lacking among healthcare workers and there is an opportunity to train them in simple, cost effective “screen-and-treat” programs that could have a great impact on the overall health of the population.
Highlights
In Haiti roughly 353 women die of cervical cancer each year, the second highest cancer-related mortality rate among Haitian women (7.1 per 100,000) [1]
It is likely that these estimates are significantly lower than the actual number of cervical cancer cases and deaths in Haiti, since there is a low level of awareness, limited access to screening services and no national cancer registry
The mean age of the participants was 34 years old. 95% of participants were female and 100% identified themselves as Haitian
Summary
In Haiti roughly 353 women die of cervical cancer each year, the second highest cancer-related mortality rate among Haitian women (7.1 per 100,000) [1]. It is likely that these estimates are significantly lower than the actual number of cervical cancer cases and deaths in Haiti, since there is a low level of awareness, limited access to screening services and no national cancer registry. Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer in women; in 2008 there were an estimated 529,000 new cases [3]. In 2008, cervical cancer was responsible for 275,000 deaths, 88% of which occurred in low-resource regions of the world [3]. The majority of cervical cancer deaths occur in women who were never screened or treated, as well as those who had an early sexual debut, a history of multiple sexual partners, and a high number of live births [4]
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