Cervical Cancer: A Disease of Inequality
Every year, approximately 500,000 women are affected by cervical cancer, and in 2012 alone, there were approximately 266,000 deaths globally. But, cervical cancer is a disease of inequality. An overwhelming majority of these women- 84% of which- live in developing countries in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Furthermore, cervical cancer continues to remain the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in low income countries. However, unlike many cancers, cervical cancer can be prevented and treated. The issue lies in the lack of access to affordable medical care in the developing world.
It is essential to look at the social inequalities, such as poverty, geography, and education in developing countries to understand why there is such an astronomical mortality rate due to cervical cancer. In many low income countries, patients lack the money to access private hospitals, and closer, public clinics often lack resources and the abilities for treatment. In addition, if a patient is able to receive a diagnosis, it is often hard to continue to make trips back to the hospital to obtain consistent treatment. This makes medical care hard to acquire and puts many at-risk women unseen by doctors.
Currently, there are multiple procedures that can be used to screen for cervical cancer. The most popular in low-resource settings is known as “visual inspection with acetic acid” or VIA. Theoretically, when a woman’s cervix is swabbed with an acetic acid solution, any pre-cancerous lesions will turn white. A diagnosis is usually promptly followed by cryotherapy. This procedure has been favorable as it allows women to get tested and treated on the same day and due to its initial low cost. However, this treatment has been found to have low accuracy, leading to many patients being falsely diagnosed and treated. Better tests exists such as a HPV test or pap smears, yet it is challenging to implement such tests into developing countries due to their high cost and impracticality. The question is, is it better to have an inaccurate test in place rather than none at all? Or is there some way to improve the accuracy of such tests?
While this evident inequality is somewhat inevitable due to economical conditions, there must be more initiatives to lessen the disparity. Innovation in prevention, detection, and treatment along with public health initiatives can help to diminish the effects of cervical cancer in developing countries and hopefully lessen this inequality.