Cancer eradication goal in question following pandemic screening drop cancer screenings

The goal to wipe out cervical cancer could be severely impacted by COVID-19 with fears over a massive drop in women screening for the disease.

Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) data shows in March 2020, when COVID-19 restrictions began, cervical screening test numbers dropped to almost half the number performed the previous year.

Although Cervical Screening Test (CST) numbers were expected to drop this year with the program changing from a two-yearly to a

five-yearly test, the number of women having their test is still much lower than anticipated.

Townsville woman Maddy Brown diagnosed with aggressive cervical cancer

The MBS figures reveal that only 174,000 women had a test from March 2020 to June 2020, when COVID-19 restrictions were in place. This figure is dwarfed by the half-a-million tests that were performed during the same period in 2019.

“Nearly all cases of cervical cancer are caused by an infection with HPV. In most cases a HPV infection shows no symptoms and that is why regular screening tests are so important,” cytopathology expert Associate Professor Annabelle Farnsworth said.

“Sadly, cervical cancer is a cancer of young women, so it’s vital that women have their tests from the age of 25.

“We do not know when the pandemic will be over so it is important that people understand they cannot put their CST on hold indefinitely.

“Measures are in place to ensure people can catch up on their screening safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Bec Gear from the Gold Coast was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Gold Coast mum, Bec Gear, 34, put off her CST for 12 months while in the process of moving back to Australia from New Zealand. She was later shocked to find she had the disease.

“I was due for my test when living in New Zealand and I decided to wait until I was back in Australia,” she said.

“When I got back, I found other excuses to put it off but eventually a post I saw on social media prompted me to go and get tested.

“I was lucky that I caught the cancer at an early stage, I shudder to think how bad it could have been.”