The Anguilla Government is joining in a regional effort to fight cervical cancer, more vigorously, to save the lives of the older women-folk who are increasingly coming down with, and dying of, the disease.

Dr. Bonnie Richardson-Lake

Social Planner in the Ministry of Social Development, Dr. Bonnie Richardson-Lake, who is the Country Coordinator for Anguilla, says: “Cervical cancer is quite a serious problem in the Caribbean region and what’s disturbing about it, is that it is extremely preventable. If a woman gets regular pap smears, there is no reason why she should ever have invasive cervical cancer. The cells can be burned and destroyed very easily in the early stages.”

The coming work in Anguilla is part of a wider initiative being undertaken by the Trinidad-based Caribbean Epidemiological Centre with the support of the Pan American Health Organisation. PAHO will be sponsoring a media workshop on cervical cancer in Antigua on September 27 to create an awareness in the islands about the disease and to launch the new initiative.

Dr. Richardson-Lake said that older women were the higher group at risk as they were not usually in contact with the health system unlike younger women of child-bearing age. She disclosed that last year an 81-year-old woman in Anguilla died of cervical cancer.

“Again as I said, the disease is extremely preventable – like 99 percent; so there really isn’t any reason why anybody should die of cervical cancer,” the Anguillian Social Planner went on. “We are trying to get the message out there and that is why we need the media folks on board. There are so many other diseases that once you are stricken with them they are not curable; but here is an example of a disease where there is extremely good screening work with 99 percent survival rates. That makes it a lot different from some of the other cancers.”

Dr. Richardson-Lake is working with a specially selected Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control Committee involving personnel from the Health Authority, the public sector and other persons in the community.

“One of the first things we want to do is some district-targeting,” she told The Anguillian Newspaper. “We are going to start with West End and have the older women come in for pap smears. We will be having some community meetings to spread the word out there.

“It is in keeping with the Ministry’s National Strategic Plan for Health. Over the next five years we have some objectives that relate specifically to cervical cancer and these are to reduce deaths by 50 percent and to ensure that all midwives in the public sector are trained in doing pap smears. We also need to have written protocols for the management of various cancers including cervical cancer. We want to increase the number of pap smears by 50 percent over the five-year period and to do at least two annual sensitisation workshops for cervical cancer and other cancers as well.”
She said that some of the work would begin in October which is cancer awareness month. She believes that the initiative will be successful in Anguilla for several reasons two of which are: it will not require a large amount of funding because cervical cancer is a preventable illness; and the members of the committee are dedicated to their task.

Those working with Dr. Richardson-Lake on the committee are: Health Educator, Civilla Kentish; Everette Duncan, Senior Technologist; Dr. Brett Hodge, Gynaecologist and Obstetrician; Gracita Christopher, Community Nursing Coordinator; Janice Hodge, Maternal and Child Health Coordinator; and Serene Carter –Davis, Director of Quality Assurance.

The Social Planner quoted CAREC as stating that over the next five years, without any intervention, some 5,000 more cases of cervical cancer would occur in the English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean. In Haiti alone, 10,000 cases were likely to surface.

“Those are daunting numbers. Just last year there were over 1,000 cases of cervical cancer across the region and it is really not necessary. That is really the bottom line,” she added, emphasising that with pap smears and treatment, the disease should not appear.

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