Communicating Scientific Findings to Communities With High Risk and Best Ways to Do That is a Challenge

Background: A national cytology cervical cancer screening program was introduced in South Africa as part of cancer control program policy more than a decade ago. Policy guidelines state that women attending the public sector services are entitled to three free Pap smears per lifetime starting at the age of 30 years or older, with a 10 year interval between each smear. However, the frequency in which women come for Pap smears is very low, with some getting diagnosed when the disease is at its advance stage. Consequently, cervical cancer incidence rates are very high with low survival rates. Fragmented evaluation of this program done in different provinces revealed that women lacked knowledge about cervical cancer. Women are also uninformed about the free national cytology cervical cancer screening. Furthermore, there is scarcity or no free public screening services especially in rural populations. In 2014, the National Health Ministry started HPV vaccination to girls at ages 11 years in schools. The expect...