Prevention of cervical and breast cancer in health services and non-governmental organizations in the city of Buenos Aires

Abstract

The article analyzes actions for the prevention of cervical and breast cancer in public, private, and employment-based health services and in non-governmental organizations in the city of Buenos Aires. The article seeks to reflect on the reach and limitations of the approaches implemented in the three subsectors of the health care system and the community to prevent women from suffering or eventually dying as a consequence of these diseases, in the fragmented context of a health system with great heterogeneity in access and deep social inequalities in the use of preventive actions. The study utilizes a broad definition of prevention which integrates education, awareness-building and early detection of pre-carcinogenic and carcinogenic lesions, among other medical and non-medical components. The results were obtained using semi-structured interviews with subjects from public hospitals, employment-based health care services, private medical companies and non-governmental organizations with work in cancer prevention. These results show that contrary to a comprehensive approach, each institution limits its actions to only one aspect of prevention, implementing predominately isolated or disconnected actions inadequate to generate an autonomous and well-informed demand for treatment and health care among women.