Dear HIFA colleagues,
I would like to highlight 11 questions that have emerged in our discussion so far. Many of these are as yet unanswered or only partly answered. Can you help to answer any of these, particularly in the context of a country you have worked in?
1. What practical guidance on cervical cancer is available for frontline health workers in your country?
2. What practical guidance on cervical cancer is available for women?
4. What are the challenges and opportunities for community health workers in increasing screening and treatment uptake?
5. What is the role of mainstream media? How to promote reliable information and protect from misinformation?
6. How do women's questions, knowledge and perspectives on cervical cancer differ between countries, age groups and cultural settings?
7. What is the experience in different countries around educating girls about reproductive health from an early age?
8. What is the role of community-based organisations in health education, and how can they coordinate with primary health workers?
9. How do men's attitudes, cultural beliefs and family relationships affect women's ability to access cervical cancer screening and treatment in your country?
10. How can traditional healers be incorporated into prevention, screening and treatment?
11. How can unlicensed practitioners (eg daktars in India) healers be incorporated into prevention, screening and treatment?
We are especially keen to hear from those with practical experience and expertise.
Please send your thoughts to hifa@hifaforums.org
Your experience will then contribute to our final report to help inform future WHO advocacy and knowledge products on cervical cancer screening and treatment.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org