Abstract
This study was carried out in order to assess the sensitivity and specificity of visual inspection after acetic acid staining (VIA) using Papanicolaou smear as the gold standard screening method for cervical premalignant lesion. Two hundred and twenty (220) consecutive and consenting women ages 20 – 70years, attending Federal Medical Centre, Ido-Ekiti, Ekiti State, were recruited. Relevant data were collected using interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaires. In conclusion, the prevalence of pre-malignant lesion of cervical cancer is high in this study. It is therefore recommended that awareness of cervical cancer and its screening should be improved through health education campaigns. VIA can serve as an alternative to Papanicolaou smear in resource-limited countries, since it has high level of specificity and sensitivity as Papanicolaou smear.
Highlights
[3] This had increased to 493,000 cases worldwide in 2002 of which more than 80% of these cases occurred in the developing countries. [4]
Papanicolaou smear was used as the gold standard for cervical cancer screening
The women waiting to be seen for different health matters in the earlier mentioned outpatient clinics were informed that two screening tests for the same purpose were available
Summary
Cervical cancer has remained a major health problem especially in the developing world despite the known preinvasive stage of this malignant condition and implementation of cervical cancer screening programs.[1,2] The developing countries accounted for 370,000 out of 466,000 cases of cervical cancer that were estimated to have occurred in the world in the year 2000. [3] This had increased to 493,000 cases worldwide in 2002 of which more than 80% of these cases occurred in the developing countries. [4]Cervical cancer is an important public health problem among adult women in developing countries in South and Central America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia. About 274,000 or more deaths occur annually due to cancer of the cervix worldwide, and more than 80% of these deaths occur in developing countries.[5,6] resource-poor areas, such as SubSaharan Africa, are currently witnessing a growing number of women infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This may further compound the problem because they have an increased risk of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection, the causal agent of cervical cancer. This may further compound the problem because they have an increased risk of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection, the causal agent of cervical cancer. [7]
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