mpossible? No Way!
While overcoming the barriers for women in low resource settings to access quality screening programs and the HPV vaccine might seem difficult under the circumstances, we must remember battles that have made significant gains when armed with justice, motivation and good planning. When antiretroviral drugs (ARV’s) were first developed and accessible in high resource countries to prolong the lives of HIV-positive people, the concept that they would be accessible for those in developing countries was considered impossible. People said the prices were too high, and that the dissemination programs could not be organized effectively. While there is still a long way to go to get everyone the ARVs they need, skeptics would likely have never imagined the progress gained with the advocacy, mobilization and action on part of people and organizations everywhere, which have insisted that all people should have access to life-enhancing medications. In our push to get better care for women with cervical cancer, let us remember these important lessons learned.“We call on industry to provide adequate supplies of these new technologies at radically tiered prices”
— Global Call to Stop Cervical Cancer“Cervical cancer accounts for a high percentage of cancer deaths in women in Latin America and the Caribbean — as high as 49.2% in Haiti, compared with 2.5% in North America. These high rates result from problems in access and quality of services.”
— DR. MIRTA ROSES
Director, Pan American Health Organization / WHO-ACCP
