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Abstract:
BACKGROUND- Cervical cancer is a preventable disease of significant public health concern especially in developing countries. Early detection of cervical cancer is possible with various screening tests like Pap smear, visual inspection with acetic acid -VIA and HPV sampling, but due to lack of awareness among many women, most of them have been infrequently or never been screened.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES- To assess the awareness on cervical cancer
-To evaluate the performance of VIA with Pap smear in cervical cancer screening
METHODS- This is a cross sectional observational study conducted at a remote area of Tamenglong District. 264 women between 25-65 years were included in the study. Written informed consent were obtained from all. Awareness talk was given regarding cervical cancer and the various methods of screening for cervical cancer. Participant’s sociodemographic information, complaints and history of risk factors were collected. A questionnaire was administered to all participants to assess the knowledge towards cervical cancer.All participants were screened simultaneously by Pap smear and VIA. Among the VIA positive cases, biopsies were taken from those women who consented to the procedure. Women with abnormal Pap smear were counseled and offered further management.
RESULTS- Mean age of screened women was 38.9 years. Mean age at first coitus was 21.8. 92% were parous women. None of the participants had history of smoking. Among 16 cases that were positive to VIA ( 6%), 3 were confirmed positive with Pap smear and biopsy reported 7 LSIL, 4 HSIL, 1 moderate dysplasia, 1 mild dysplasia , 1 koilocytic atypia and 2 normal report. 12 of those that were negative to VIA were found positive to Pap smear .In my study, VIA showed higher sensitivity as compared to pap smear. 4.5% had knowledge about cervical cancer, 33 participants were comfortable with speculum examination.
CONCLUSIONS- From the findings of this study, it is recommended that VIA can be used to screen for cervical cancer as it is easy, cheap, quick .It can be easily implemented in low resource settings .More awareness and screening program should be conducted in remote areas for early detection and treatment.
