CONCERNING statistics revealing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are
five times more likely to die from cervical cancer and twice as likely to be
diagnosed than non-Indigenous women, have prompted Swan Hill’s Mallee District
Aboriginal Service (MDAS) to take action.
The statistics were released by
PapScreen Victoria, a communications and recruitment program funded by the
Victorian Department of Health as part of the National Cervical Screening
Program and coordinated by the Cancer Council of Victoria.
MDAS Allied Health
Coordinator Xavier Bisson said further results revealed that 20 per cent of
Indigenous women in Swan Hill had gone more than four years without having a pap
smear.
Mr Bisson said, considering women should be tested every two years,
the statistics led to “grave concerns”.
For more on this story see Friday’s edition of the Guardian (15/11/2013).
