In order to achieve success, African American women need more education about cervical cancer, the importance of regular Pap smear screening, and current and cutting edge tests for the causes of cervical cancer. Approximately 15,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 5000 women die of the disease. Cervical cancer is the second most common malignancy found in women. One third of the preventable cervical cancers occur in women who have had a Pap smear during the past five years. Up to 80 percent of women get HPV at some point during their lives.
Immunity controls the virus for most women.
Of the more than 70 types of HPV, only 23 of these infect the cervix, and only 13 are associated with cervical cancer. Infection with one of these types places a woman at increased risk for cervical cancer, but does not necessarily mean that she will get cancer. HPV testing, combined with the Pap Smear, can provide a new dimension to the cervical cancer screening process. Detection of abnormal cellular changes that are not yet cancer and very early invasive cancer are virtually 100 percent curable. African Americans accounted for 22 percent of total AIDS deaths, while comprising 12 percent of the total population of 272 million people.