In observance of Breast Cancer Awareness month, ANSA McAL Trading Limited in collaboration with ROCHE yesterday donated US$2,400 to the Giving Hope Foundation.
The company donated 100 Mía by XytoTest Molecular Screening Test Kits for HPV to Dr. Latoya Goodings, Founder of the Giving Hope Foundation, as part of a collaboration with Mel-Mont Medical.
During the brief handing over ceremony yesterday morning at ANSA McAL headquarters at Beterverwagting, the Divisional Head of its Health& Wellness Department, Andrel Griffith, said the donation of approximately US$2,400 will go towards biopsy testing for 10 women. Goodings noted that these women will be selected at a later date.
Regarding the screening tests kits for HPV, Griffith said that Guyana is the first English-speaking country in the Caribbean to benefit from these kits and he noted that the kits allow women to self-collect cervical cells in any environment without assistance. Once the samples are collected, they will be analysed by way of PCR testing in order to identify the DNA for persons at high-risk for the HPV virus. It also uses the same samples to detect the likelihood of these persons developing cervical cancer.
According to Griffith, in contrast to the Pap smear, which has 30% to 50 % sensitivity, the Mia by XytoTest system has 96% sensitivity in its results. “Thus, the self-collected test aims to become a great alternative in the fight against cancer,” he said.
Women in the hinterland regions are likely to be beneficiaries of the HPV screening kits and Goodings revealed that the women will first have to be trained to collect the sample. However, she was confident that it would be quite easy. Training is expected to commence next weekend in Region Seven.
