Cancer cervix reaches 3,000 new women in France each year and kills more than 1,000, according to figures of the High Authority for Health. Detected in time, this disease could do less damage. Despite the recommendation of a smear every three years for women aged 25 to 65, nearly 40% of women do not perform any control in France. In question, the fear of an intimate examination, the delays and the difficulty of access to a gynecologist in certain areas.
To solve this problem, a self-screening test should soon be made available to French women. According to a study published by the epidemiological bulletin weekly, it could help reduce the number of cervical cancers diagnosed in France. To use it, just take a sample of cells using a kind of long cotton swab which is then placed in a plastic tube and sent to the laboratory. The analysis of this sample makes it possible to verify the presence (or absence) of papillomavirus, whose persistent infection can lead to cervical cancer.
Practical and inexpensive, this test is as sensitive and reliable as a smear carried out by a gynecologist or a general practitioner. According to Dr. Ken Haguenoer, lead author of the study, it would double the participation of women who are not used to getting tested, and all for the same price as the current social security system.
