Bev Lawton, a Professor at Victoria University and head of the National Centre for Women’s Health Research sees her role as “stirring the pot for women’s health.”
She spoke to the club on 29 March. John Bishop reports.
In particular, Bev is a campaigner for a fully funded national cervical screening programme, a service Australian women have enjoyed since 2017.
She told the club this week that the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is widespread and when it finds its way into the cervix, it can mutate into a cancer.
Screening detects the onset of cancer and enables early treatment. At present 160 women a year are diagnosed with cervical cancer of whom 50 with an average age of 41 years die each year.
She said $53 million was set aside in the 2021 Budget for a start to screening in July this year. This is sufficient to create a national registry, but not enough for the rest of the work that needs to be done.
Currently, Dr Lawton’s main concern is the ongoing delay to roll out a cervical cancer screening programme that uses a quick, easy, pain-free and cost-effective self test. The test, which allows women to perform a vaginal swab in private, identifies the 16 and 18 HPV virus strains most likely to cause cervical cancer, which is preventable when found early enough.
“Currently, cervical screening is carried out via by an invasive and uncomfortable smear test, a procedure that takes time and resources and is hard for many women,” says Bev.
Bev showed a short documentary video about a shearing group in Central Otago and the mobile cervical screening bus which goes out to remote places to enable women in those areas to get screened using the self-administered test.“This is a test which saves lives,” Bev said. “We have the science and we have the tools. No woman should ever get cervical cancer. This disease is preventable."
Cards which can be scanned to show support for a petition seeking funding for a national screening programme were distributed to members. You can sign it in 30 seconds by clicking this link
Rotary's Give Every Child a Future have teamed up with UNICEF to deliver vaccinations in the Pacific - including HPV vaccines to adolescent girls. Read more here