Public Employee Press

Cervical cancer forum at DC 37 targets prevention

Three women’s health experts shared their knowledge about cervical cancer with DC 37 members Jan. 28 at a forum cosponsored by the union’s Health and Nutrition and Women’s committees. Symptoms, treatment and prevention topped their agendas.

Carolyn Jacobson, director of the Cervical Cancer Prevention Works program for the Coalition of Labor Union Women, underscored a vital point: Every woman has the power to make the choices that can prevent this type of deadly cancer.

“Cervical cancer is almost 100 percent preventable,” Jacobson said. If the disease is caught early, it can be treated with surgery or chemotherapy. Undetected, it is lethal.

Jacobson showed a short video featuring cervical cancer survivor Tamika Felder, an AFSCME member, sharing the basic facts about the disease.

The human papillomavirus causes 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. HPV is a common sexually transmitted infection, which is often harmless and causes no symptoms. Yet certain very aggressive varieties cause cancer.

A study released in March found that more than one in four U.S. teenage girls is infected with at least one sexually transmitted disease. A new vaccine that protects against HPV has been approved for females from 9 to 26. The vaccine, Gardasil, is effective only if it is administered before exposure to HPV.

Condoms are another important line of defense against HPV and most other STDs, said reproductive health specialist Dr. Vanessa Cullins, who emphasized that HPV is very common. “The goal is to try and protect as many people as possible from being infected,” she said.

Dr. Bruce Eagle at the city Health Dept. focuses on prevention. He underscored the critical importance for women to ask their gynecologists for an annual Pap smear and the HPV test. “The vaccine is very safe and effective, but only if it’s administered,” he said. “It’s not about sex; it’s about preventing cancer.”

“The forum gave members the knowledge they need to make their decisions,” said Health Committee Chair Michelle Keller.