Wellness day at Helen Joseph Hospital
Helen Joseph Hospital in partnership with Right to Care offered women free pap smear, HIV test, high blood, blood sugar and self breast examinations.
A wellness day was held at Helen Joseph Hospital where women were offered free a pap smear, HIV test, high blood check, blood sugar check as well as breast examinations.
Dr Bridgette Goieman of Right to Care, which works with the hospital, said that for the day the services offered was for free.
Right to Care is a non-profit organisation that supports and delivers prevention, care, and treatment services for HIV and associated diseases.
The wellness day held on 3 September, was in its third year and they tested over 150 people where each year 15 per cent of the women tested were referred to the hospital for further treatment.
Dr Goieman said that since September was cervical cancer month they used the wellness day to create awareness about the illness that she said killed more women than breast cancer.
“We do these tests so that we can catch the illness early to give the patient a fighting chance against the disease,” she said.
She pointed out that cervical cancer took up to 25 years to develop in a HIV negative women compared to the five years it took to develop
in a HIV positive woman. She added that the wellness day also served to dispel rumors that circulated in communities that the pap smear was a painful procedure.
Dr Goieman encouraged women over 30 years to go and get tested as cervical cancer was curable. She added that once a patient had had a
pap smear they would only be required to repeat the procedure after 10 years. However, she said that for HIV it was different as they recommended that the test be done at the age of 18 years.
