In 2009 UNFPA Country Office in Uzbekistan has initiated the assessment of the existing cervical cancer screening, diagnostic and care system in rural and urban settings in order to propose a model for the piloting cervical cancer screening prevention and control project in Fergana Province. The main recommendation for starting of the pilot project was to establish an organized cytological screening based on Papanicolau methodology (Pap testing). The project started in five selected facilities with coverage of 10000 women aged 25-65.
In 2013 the pilot project was expanded to Namangan and Andijan Provinces of Fergana Valley. Since project was started in Fergana, 11 cases of cervical carcinoma at early stage have been detected out of 9700 cytological screening by pap methodology without observation of clinical symptoms.
Cervical cancer is a disease that poses a direct threat to public health, claiming the lives of over 250,000 women every year globally. The disease burden has declined significantly in most countries because measures were taken to: (1) screen women for precancerous lesions and treat before progression to cervical cancer; (2) vaccinate girls and women before sexual debut and, therefore, exposure to oncogenic HPV types.Ms. Ortayli will review and analyze outcomes of the pilot project through assessing the application and effectiveness of the recommended algorithms for cytological screening and assess effectiveness of the approaches and models for organization of the screening under this particular project.
