The campaign is aimed at 25-year-olds already vaccinated within 15 years with at least two doses against the Papilloma virus, the first call will be at 30. Since last January, the Region has remodeled the Cervical Cancer Screening Program
April 5, 2023 – ‘5 minutes in five years’. So says the claim of the campaign of comunication that the Emilia Romagna region is aimed at twenty-five year olds for the cervical screening.
In fact, from this year the first call for screening was postponed to 30 years of age, starting with women born in 1998 and vaccinated with at least two doses of HPV, both administered before the age of 15. In Emilia-Romagna the twenty-five already vaccinated within 15 years with at least two doses against the Papilloma virus they will do the first test at age 30in 2028.
“The remodulation of the regional screening program, which will allow us to further improve cancer prevention, – underlines the councilor for health policies, Raffaele Donini– comes to life. With this communication campaign, we are calling on young women to take care of their health. I take this opportunity to remind you that adhering to screening is important because the numbers confirm that prevention and early diagnosis are fundamental”.
Several of the tools campaign of comunication developed by the Region: the 25-year-olds already vaccinated are receiving one letterat home and via an electronic health record, by the Health Trusts which explains the reasons for the postponement and a postcard. Here they will also find a QR-code which refers to the dedicated web page for more information (the posters of the campaign and on the social channels of the Region throughout the month of April will be online mini-clip. The campaign recalls that screenings – such as HPV – require a commitment of a few minutes, but are invaluable because, by accepting the invitation, we take care of our health.
How screening works in Emilia-Romagna
The screening program offers with active invitation:
- the Pap test, every three years, to women aged 25 to 29 born before 1998 and to women born after 1998 if not vaccinated with at least two doses of HPV vaccine within 15 years;
- the HPV test, every 5 years for all women aged 30 to 64, is the most effective test for the prevention and early diagnosis of cervical cancer in this age group.
In recent months, the Regional Council has approved the remodeling of the screening program because the donne vaccinate against the Papilloma Virus with at least two dosesboth administered before the age of 15, have a very low risk of developing invasive cervical cancer before the age of 30, but it remains a rare event even after the age of 30. Furthermore, having a Pap smear could expose them to a risk of overdiagnosis and overtreatment at an age which in most cases precedes the first pregnancy. If done before the age of 30, the screening test is not useful because in rare cases it can lead to the identification of lesions that often regress spontaneously at a young age. Indeed, HPV is a virus that causes a very frequent infection, which most people catch at least once in their life but which in most cases resolves on its own, especially in young women.
25-year-olds who are not already vaccinated against HPV can receive the vaccine for free by age 26. In screening, the whole process is free and organized, from the test to any treatment and subsequent checks.
Data from Emilia-Romagna
In Emilia-Romagna they are 160,000 gives it who annually undergo the prevention test for i cervical cancers and about a thousand who are diagnosed with pre- or cancerous lesions. In Emilia-Romagna the program covers more 1,230,000 resident and domiciled women and has been active since 1996 for the 25-64 age range with Pap tests and starting from 2016 with HPV tests for those between 30 and 64 years of age.
The results: among those who perform the HPV test, one out of 12 women is positive, but only less than half (40%) are invited to perform an in-depth colposcopy, as the triage test (Pap test) is also positive. Among the women subjected to this examination, the presence of a lesion emerges in one in every five. Fortunately, most of these lesions are still in the precancerous stage: the program detects about one precancerous lesion for every 132 women and one tumor for every 5,000 women who join the screening.
Campaign poster