Browsing by Author "Mapitigama, N."

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    The Feasibility of new HPV/DNA test as a primary cervical cancer screening method among 35- years- old ever-married women in Kalutara district; a cross-sectional study
    (BioMed Central, 2021) Perera, K.C.M.; Mapitigama, N.; Abeysena, H.T.C.S.
    BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is the second commonest female cancer in Sri Lanka. Two major drawbacks of the present cervical cancer screening programme are the suboptimal sensitivity of the pap smear and the low coverage. The objective of the study is to determine the feasibility of a new HPV/DNA test among 35 -years -old ever-married women in a district of Sri Lanka. METHOD: A community based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from 1stof July 2018 to 30th November 2018 in the public health divisions called Medical Officer of Health (MOH) areas of Kalutara district. The study population is comprised of ever-married women 35 years of age. Three women from each cluster (n = 413) were selected by consecutive sampling. A total of 918 women were recruited. HPV/DNA cervical specimen collection (n = 822) was carried out. Cervical specimens were tested by two cytoscreeners with the cobas 4800 PCR based screening machine. Clients' perceptions and prevalence were assessed. The follow-up of women with positive HPV/DNA screening results was carried out. The operational and technical feasibility of the screening test were assessed. Data entry was done by using the statistical package IBM SPSS version 20. RESULTS: Overall response rate was 91.1% (n = 836). Clients' perception was highly positive for HPV/DNA screening test procedure (99.9%, n = 821) and 99.6% (n = 819) of clients had mentioned that the HPV/DNA screening test is worthwhile to be incorporated into the National Cervical Cancer Screening program. The prevalence of HPV was 6.2% (95%CI: 6.18-6.22%). The coverage of the HPV/DNA screening was 89.5%(n = 822). Invalid results reported were 0.12% (n = 1). The percentage of HPV/DNA test positive women who underwent pap test within 3 months of the initial screening was 100% (n = 51), while the percentage of women who attempted to get a colposcopy within the 1 month of referral was 86.7% (n = 13). CONCLUSIONS: HPV/DNA test implementation as a primary cervical cancer screening method is feasible among the 35- year age cohort of ever- married women in Kalutara district. It is necessary to further attempt alternative methods of cobas 4800 HPV/DNA test, which would be much suitable for resource-limited settings. KEYWORDS: Cervical cancer; Feasibility; HPV/DNA test; Implementation; Screening.
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    Perceptions of the cervical cancer screening programme in Sri Lanka, among healthcare workers in Kalutara district
    (College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka, 2021) Perera, K.C.M.; Abeysena, H.T.C.S.; Mapitigama, N.
    Background: Even after 20 years of existence of the cervical cancer programme with pap smears, there is no marked reduction in the incidence of cervical cancer in Sri Lanka. Therefore, the cervical cancer screening programme needs to be reviewed again. Objective: To explore the perceptions of cervical cancer screening programme among health care workers. Methods: Focus group Discussion (FGD) sessions among Public Health Midwives (n=4) and Key Informant Interviews (KII) (n=10) among health care workers in the Kalutara district were conducted. A convenient sampling technique was used. Public Health Midwives for each focus group (n=8) were selected according to their seniority and the representation of communities. Triangulation methodology was used. At last summary, results were prepared and analysis was done by manual content. Results: Majority of the participants were Sinhalese (n=41, 97.6%), Buddhist (n=39, n=92.9%) and over 40 years of age (n=31, n=73.8%). Some had >20 years of service in the field (n=14, n=33.3%). Some participants mentioned the low sensitivity of pap smears and therefore the missing of lesions, unsatisfactory smears, and reporting delay due to the work burden of cytoscreeners as disadvantages of the pap smear method. Increase community awareness, supervision of WWC activities, conduction of mobile clinics indicated as pathways to improve the coverage by the participant. HPV/DNA test was well accepted as its sensitivity is high, while the majority stated to improve the coverage by vaginal specimens as the procedure is simple and can be done even by public health midwives. Conclusions: Increase community awareness, supervision, and mobile clinics to cover hard to reach population were mainly stated to improve the coverage. The Vaginal HPV/DNA specimens were mentioned as a new tool to improve the coverage.