Cervical cancer control plea

Press, 28 May 1984, Page 14

Cervical cancer control plea

PA Dunedin An epidemic of cervical cancer will occur unless controls are introduced, a medical conference at Dunedin has been told. Speaking at the Symposium on Women’s Health, Professor David Skegg, of the preventive and social medicine department at Otago University, - said the present cancer screening programme was mainly ineffective. “The coverage of women in our community is sporadic,” Dr Skegg said. The rate of cervical can-

cer in women under 35 years had increased dramatically since the 19505. This rise was carried through as the women aged. The death rate from cervical cancer had declined since 1941 in middleaged and older women but it appeared to have risen recently in women under 35, he said. Dr Skegg warned that there would be an epidemic of cancer of the cervix unless major improvements in controlling the disease in New Zealand were instituted. He said women who

married early, had multiple marriages, an early introduction to sex and multiple sexual partners were most at risk. Of these the main risk appeared to be multiple sexual partners and he said it seemed probable that a virus was transferred through sexual intercourse. The symposium also discussed the establishment of a committee to provide guidelines on cervical smear testing. Mrs Betsy Marshall, a member of the Cancer Society’s national education committee, said she was

concerned that the information given to women should be consistent and that a committee would develop recommendations for women and medical practitioners. “We have realised for several years that we need some sort of consistent guidelines on the frequency of testing.” Mrs Marshall said she would like to see a committee composed of representatives from the Health Department, Cancer Society, medical practitioners and epidemiologists.