Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh announced that a portion of the $1.146 trillion 2024 Budget will be allotted to issuing a $8,000 voucher to women between the ages of 21 and 65, to help meet the costs of testing for cervical cancer.
It is advised to do PAP testing every three years for women 21- 65 yrs old or every five years if combined with HPV co-test.
January is Cervical Cancer awareness month, and women are encouraged to educate themselves on prevention and early detection of cancer of the cervix and its pre-cancerous stages.
Statistics from a report in 2023 from the Information Centre on HPV and Cancer state that every year 121 Guyanese woman are diagnosed with cervical cancer, while 63 die from the disease. As such, it concludes that cervical cancer is the 2nd most frequent cancer among Guyanese women between 15 and 44 years of age.
The Government issued voucher exceeds the usual cost for this testing at private health facilities. The Dr. Bhalwant Singh’s Hospital Inc. offers testing for cervical answer, at a charge of approximately $6,000 dollars. They are the first institution in Guyana to offer modern pap smear analysis technique with results in 3 days