Transcript
A Volunteer Services Abroad researcher, Holly Coulter, says both men and women were included in the surveys and focus groups, and it soon became clear much more education is needed. She says at least 4 women die each year from cervical cancer in Kiribati but only one tenth of the 24 000 women in the target age group is being screened.
"The main thing that we found is that there's a real lack of knowledge around cervical screening in Kiribati. People, they don't really know what it is, they don't know why they need it, they don't really understand how cervical cancer develops and they kind of think that maybe you only really need to go for a smear if you've got some symptoms, which as we know is actually a lot of the time too late."
Holly Coulter says misunderstandings are leading to a stigma against taking part in screening programmes.
"And we've also found that jealousy from male partners was a pretty big issue for people here. Because not understanding what's involved in the procedure. All they know is that it involves some kind of vaginal examination, male partners aren't ok with that. And it creates a whole lot of problems in terms of people's ability to just even come and have a smear."
The Director of the Kiribati Family Health Association, Norma Yeeting, agrees both men and women need to be targeted by the Ministry of Health as it looks to improve its future policies.
"I think we need to do a lot more on the awareness programmes. And also to get the support of the husbands to you know encourage their wives to take on that because this is very important for the health of our women."
She says donor partners have boosted the ability to reach more women thoughout Kiribati.
"Now we have already visited seven islands and I know that the training has been conducted on PAP smear to support the Ministry of Health nurses on the outer islands."
Holly Coulter says Kiribati has an established laboratory facility and staff to detect abnormal smears and early cancers can be treated locally. She says finance is a problem though for bringing in a sustained vaccination programme to prevent cervical cancer after a pilot project seven years ago failed to continue.
"For the mean time we are just focussing on the actual screening because that's a really effective way to do it but ideally if you can be reducing the number of girls getting HPV and the actual rates of cervical cancer with these vaccinations that's what we really want to be striving for."
The report recommends the Ministry of Health set up a national cervical cancer register, increase regular mobile clinics and create more effective health promotion.
