Health workers at the frontline of fighting high rates of cervical cancer among Māori women say a new, easier, test is promising but it isn t a one-stop fix.
Nurse Frances Whaanga-Tuhi (left) and community health worker Diane Chapman hope self swab tests for cervical cancer will remove the barriers for some Māori women to getting the test.
Photo: SUPPLIED
The government is to change its cervical cancer screening programme in 2023 to a vaginal swab for the HPV virus which causes 99 percent of cervical cancers.
Women could choose to do it themselves, and it would replace the current pap smear screening which needed a doctor or nurse to use a speculum and tiny brush to take cells from the cervix.