HPV Testing Most Successful Method for Cervical Cancer Screening in Developing Countries

 

HPV

"In low-resource settings, testing for human papillomavirus (HPV) might be the most effective method of cervical cancer screening. Compared with cytologic testing and visual inspection of the cervix with acetic acid (VIA), a single round of HPV testing significantly reduced the incidence of advanced cervical cancer and related mortality among women in rural India.

There is a lack of effective screening programs for cervical cancer in developing countries, where 80% of cases occur every year. "A single HPV test that is performed 15 to 20 years after the median age of first sexual intercourse will detect many easily treatable, persistent infections and precancers, while limiting overtreatment," the editorialists note, but widespread implementation of HPV screening still faces a number of challenges.

The introduction of prophylactic HPV vaccines does not diminish the importance of HPV screening, they emphasize. "Even when the vaccines become affordable and widely used, they will not substantially decrease rates of cervical cancer for decades because of the long latency between infection and cancer," they write.

In this study, researchers evaluated the effectiveness of a single round of HPV testing, cytologic testing, or VIA in reducing the incidence of cervical cancer and associated mortality rate in women residing in rural India.

HPV Test Most Objective and Reproducible

Overall, the researchers found HPV testing to be the most objective and reproducible of all cervical screening tests, as well as being less demanding in terms of training and quality assurance. A drawback is that it is more expensive and time-consuming than other types of screening tests, and it requires a sophisticated laboratory infrastructure." [Medscape ]

Hot climate produces baby girls

"People who live in the tropics have more baby girls compared with those living in other parts of the world, work reveals.

It may be down to the hotter weather or the longer days, says US researcher Dr Kristen Navara in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.
She says this climate may change miscarriage rates and sperm quality.
Or there may be some evolutionary advantage to having more girls than boys if you live by the equator.
Research suggests the female foetus is less fragile than the male foetus, which is more prone to the effects of the environment on pregnant women.
At times of extreme environmental stress, including war, the birth rate of girls outstrips that of boys.
Experts have suspected that latitude could have an effect. Past work has shown that the chances of giving birth to a boy increase as you head south - at least in Europe.
But it is difficult to draw conclusions looking at regions in isolation because of wide variations in things like culture, society and economy, to name but a few.
Dr Navara, of the University of Georgia, set out to gain a global perspective by looking a the sex ratios at birth of 202 countries over a 10-year period and taking into account socio-economic differences between nations and continents.
The accepted global average is slightly male biased, at 106 males per 100 females, or 51.5 %.
"The only country in the world which produces more females than males is the Central African Republic," she told the BBC's Network Africa." [BBC Health]