Low-Income Women in Mexico Screened for Papillomavirus

In a campaign to reduce cervical cancer in Mexico, all low-income women aged between 35 and 60 will be offered free testing for human papillomavirus (HPV).

The Mexican Public Health Agency (Secretaria de Salud; Cuauhtémoc Mexico City, Mexico) has launched the first phase of a program in which 200,000 women in the lowest-income 125 counties will be offered the papillomavirus test along with the traditional Papanicolaou (Pap) smear.

In early 2009, the pilot program will be expanded to include another 600,000 women in the 20 states with the highest death rate from cervical cancer. If the pilot program is successful, the remaining eight Mexican states will be included later in 2009.

The national screening program will use Qiagen's (Frankfurt, Germany) molecular digene test for HPV, the only such test approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA; Rockville, MD, USA). The digene HPV hc2 Test for the detection of human papillomavirus infections uses hybrid capture 2 technology. It detects 13 high-risk HPV and 5 low-risk HPV types and provides standardized, objective results.

Peer Schatz, CEO of Qiagen commented, ""Every year, more than 9,000 Mexican women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and nearly half of them die. Yet this is an entirely preventable disease."

Qiagen provides sample technologies used to isolate and process DNA, RNA, and proteins from biological samples such as blood or tissue. Assays make these isolated molecules visible to facilitate detection of disease and biologic research. The company provides products to molecular diagnostics laboratories, academic researchers, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and applied testing customers for purposes such as forensics, animal or food testing, and pharmaceutic process control.

Related Links:
Secretaria de Salud
Qiagen
U.S. Food and Drug Administration