BBC World documentary on cervical cancer in Uganda

BBC World documentary on cervical cancer in Uganda

Film airs the week of July 20

Cervical cancer takes 250,000 lives a year and is the leading cancer killer of women in many countries, including Uganda. A new film in the BBC's "Kill or Cure?" series uncovers the challenges of preventing and treating cervical cancer in Africa and highlights exciting new opportunities for dramatically reducing the toll of disease.

The BBC crew follows Sarah Nyombi—Ugandan member of parliament, trained midwife, and women's health advocate—as she explores the landscape of cervical cancer. Sarah meets a father of 12 who lost his wife to cervical cancer, but now has the chance to protect his daughters against a similar fate. She also visits a rural school where girls are being vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV). Back in Kampala, Sarah learns that Uganda will soon inaugurate one of the first cervical cancer screening programs in the world to use a new HPV DNA test especially designed for low-resource settings. Finally, she brainstorms with Dr. Julian Lob-Levyt, chief executive officer of the GAVI Alliance—an organization that helps countries pay for new vaccines—asking him to move quickly to protect girls and women against this silent killer.

Please don't miss this important film. And be sure to let colleagues, friends and family know!

The half-hour film is currently scheduled to be shown at the following times:
July 21, 20:30 GMT
July 22, 13:30 GMT Asia Pacific only
July 23, 16:30 GMT
July 24, 02:30 GMT except in Asia Pacific/South Asia/Middle East

To find broadcast times in your country, and to ensure that broadcast times have not changed, visit the BBC News online schedule (select your country, enter the timeframe July 20 to July 25, download as printer-friendly version, and search for "Kill or Cure?").

Unfortunately, most cities in the United States and United Kingdom do not receive BBC World, and BBC America does not offer the same programming. But don't despair—the film will appear on the RHO Cervical Cancer website in August.

Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention responds to new evidence on screening

An important document from the Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention (ACCP) puts new evidence from India into context and provides guidance relating to investment in visual inspection-based screening programs in low-resource settings.

A study published by Sankaranarayanan et al. in the April 2, 2009 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine1 added to the growing evidence that a significant impact on cancer mortality can be achieved by offering women even a single opportunity for cervical cancer screening using an HPV DNA test followed by treatment as indicated. In contrast to previous findings, the new study from India found no significant reductions in cancer cases among women offered screening/treatment using cytology (Pap screening) or visual inspection with acetic acid. This ACCP fact sheet seeks to help program managers and decision-makers interpret and use the new data.

1Sankaranarayanan R, Nene BM, Shastri SS. HPV screening for cervical cancer in rural India. New England Journal of Medicine. 2009;360(14):1385–1394.