September 25, 2003

Report from the Field:
Preventing Cervical Cancer

Friends,

The effort to prevent cervical cancer in Malawi took one small step forward Monday afternoon, September 22, 2003. As a follow-up to our cervical cancer prevention workshop in August, Judith Chimenya, RN, and I took a field trip to Muloza Health Center near the border with Mozambique that afternoon. One of the two nurses who run that government health center was a participant at our workshop. The purpose of our trip was to take her some supplies so that she can start screening asymptomatic women for early, premalignant lesions of the cervix.

Muloza Health Center is located within five miles of the border with Mozambique. It is a 35-minute drive from Mulanje District Hospital, first on a good paved road, and then on a good dirt road. The Center has no electricity or running water, yet it is neat and relatively clean. During the first 21 days in September, 75 babies had been born at the center. The births at night would have been attended by kerosene lantern. Mrs. Bokosi, RN, our colleague in prevention, greeted us cheerfully and showed us around the facility.

The supplies we left were about 100 long, cotton-tipped swabs, three bottles of vinegar, eight bottles of chlorox, some clinical forms for reporting, a ledger book, and a small flashlight with two Duracell batteries. These are the supplies necessary for being able to visualize the cervix for the method we are using. Plans were made for us to return December 8, 2003, to see how things are going.

In the near future, we would like to supply a cryosurgery instrument and CO2 gas cylinder to Muloza Health Center so that white lesions of the cervix that are suspicious for being premalignant can be frozen by Mrs. Bokosi. The machines cost $750 and are purchased in the United States. The CO2 gas cylinders cost one hundred dollars and are purchased in Malawi.

Dr. Sue Makin
Obstetrician/Gynecologist
Mulanje Mission Hospital

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 48