Umbria, with a view to increasingly effective cancer prevention activities, has implemented the new indications of the Onational screening observatory which include an invitation to take the test, a starting from the age of 30 and no longer at 25, for those women who have been vaccinated with at least two doses against HPV, the human papilloma virus before the age of 15: the councilor for health and social policies of the Umbria Region, Luca Coletto communicates it.
“Umbria, as witnessed by the latest Ons report – recalls councilor Coletto, in a note from the Region – was one of the few Italian regions where screening programs resisted the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic very well, both in terms of invitations (both in 2020 and 2021 the entire target population was invited) and in terms of registrations, where, in the face of significant drops recorded at national level, it substantially maintained the previous values which are confirmed among the highest in Italy, with a rather stable trend over time”.
Overall, the cervical cancer screening program is about about 240,000 women aged between 25 and 64 years. With regard to the organizational innovations adopted, it should be underlined – the note underlines – that prevention is changing thanks to the diffusion of instruments of consolidated effectiveness, such as the HPV vaccine and screening for cervical cancer. Scientific research has shown that women vaccinated against HPV before the age of 15 have a very low risk of developing pre-tumor lesions of the cervix before the age of 30.
Therefore, Umbria, among the first Regions in Italy, with the Dgr 1359/2022 has implemented the indications of the National Screening Observatory and of the National Prevention Plan 2020-2025, which provide for screening for the uterine cervix to directly invite women vaccinated against HPV with at least two doses before the age of 30.
Twenty-five-year-old women not vaccinated with at least two doses against HPV, or with a single dose of vaccine or with the second dose of the vaccination series administered after the age of 15, will continue to be invited with the first cervical cancer screening call to perform the Pap smear.
In order to effectively implement this change, the Region and the Local Health Authorities have implemented a series of activities concerning: the integration between the vaccination registers and the screening management program, through which it is currently possible to verify the HPV vaccination status of women who must be invited to screening for the first time in order to structure differentiated screening pathways; the training of operators involved in the process, through two courses held between the end of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 intended for gynecologists and midwives; the fact that the communication is addressed directly to twenty-five-year-old women through a special information letter that will be sent to the homes of women who have been vaccinated against HPV with two doses of the vaccine within 15 years, and addressed to the population and operators involved in various capacities, through the dissemination of a multi-channel communication campaign.
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