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January 10, 2002
For more information, contact: Jan Nakama (808)
692-7474
January is National Cervical Health Awareness Month,
with the goal of educating and encouraging women across America to
visit their health care provider for annual Pap tests. Early detection
through annual Pap tests is the best protection against cervical cancer
deaths because this form of cancer is nearly 100% curable when detected
early. All women are encouraged to get a Pap test every year.
Since 1997, the Department of Health’s Hawai`i
Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program (HBCCCP) under the Chronic
Disease Management and Control Branch, has offered through contracted
providers in each county, free cervical cancer screening services to
eligible low-income women, between the ages of 50-64 years who have no
medical insurance or lack adequate medical insurance.
Cervical cancer is one of the most common causes of
cancer worldwide, and one of the most preventable and treatable. The
American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates that 12, 900 cases of cervical
cancer will have been diagnosed in the United States in the year 2001
and about 4,400 women will have died from the disease during the same
period.
ACS reports that between 60% and 80% of American
women with newly diagnosed invasive cervical cancer had not had a Pap
test in the past five years…and may never have had one. The
unscreened population groups include ethnic minorities, women over the
age of 50 who are medically uninsured or underinsured, and women with
low-income, especially those in the rural areas.
For more information about the causes, detection and
prevention of cervical cancer or for the name of the nearest health
care provider offering no-cost HBCCCP cervical cancer screenings, call
the Hawai`i Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program at (808)
692-7460.
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