Prefeitura de Manaus implanta o exame Papanicolaou em base líquida
The city hall is a pioneer in the northern region in the implementation of the Kolplast CellPreserv Liquid Based Cytology System.
Text: Victor Cruz – Semsa
Manaus City Hall will be a pioneer in the northern region in the implementation of liquid-based preventive collection, a method superior to conventional collection in the screening of cervical cancer cases. The Municipal Health Department (Semsa) has already started training the teams at the Basic Health Units (UBSs) and the cytologists at the Professor Sebastião Ferreira Marinho Specialty Laboratory, so that the service can be made available from the second half of May.
According to the municipal health secretary, Shádia Fraxe, the supplies for the preventive collection and the equipment for analysis in liquid form will be paid for out of her own resources.
“Esse avanço é resultado dos esforços da secretaria, sob determinação do prefeito David Almeida, para combater o câncer do colo do útero em Manaus. A realização do preventivo proporciona diagnóstico precoce da doença, quando as chances de cura são altíssimas, e por isso todas as nossas unidades de saúde ofertam o serviço, prioritariamente para as mulheres na faixa etária de 25 a 64 anos”, destaca Shádia.
Semsa’s Diagnostic Support manager, Ana Paula Neves, explains that liquid collection has significant advantages for the health service, including a better method for preparing the slide, making interpretation easier, increased sensitivity and specificity, and greater efficiency in sample handling. “All of this will have a direct impact on the speed of analysis and the release of reports,” he says.
Ana Paula points out that the units that will start offering the liquid preventive will initially be those with the highest demand. As soon as it is implemented, which is scheduled for the second half of May, the service will be gradually extended to the other basic units in the municipality.
“We’ve been trying to acquire this new technology for some time, and at the end of last year we put the service out to tender, with the contract starting on April 17th of this year, when the process of installing the equipment and training the teams began. For us, this measure is really a phenomenal gain, as we will be the first capital in Brazil to implement the service, which will bring a lot of benefit to the population,” he says.
Training for the nursing teams that collect preventive samples at the UBSs took place on Thursday and Friday, April 27 and 28. The cytology professionals at the Professor Sebastião Ferreira Marinho Specialties Laboratory have already received initial training, and will undergo a new refresher course on May 10 and 11, using the equipment already installed on site.
“The 30 professionals who read the slides are specialists in clinical cytology, and they serve all of the city’s health units, as well as doing quality control for some units in the state. Everyone is directly involved in this movement to strengthen health care for women in our city,” adds Ana Paula.
Câncer do colo do útero
Nurse Lúcia Freitas, head of the Women’s Health Care Division, explains that cervical cancer is caused by persistent infection with certain types of the human papillomavirus (HPV), called oncogenic types. In Manaus, according to the Mortality Information System (SIM), there were 190 deaths from cervical cancer in 2022, and in the first four months of this year, 33 deaths.
“Although this type of cancer is a public health problem of high magnitude, being the second most incident in the Northern Region, it can be eradicated. The global strategy proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) is to expand vaccination against HPV and the screening and treatment of precursor lesions,” he says.
Last year, more than 115,000 preventive exams were carried out at UBSs, according to partial data from Semsa, 99,000 of which were of women in the at-risk age group. If the test detects a precursor lesion, users are referred for a biopsy and follow up with specialized services in the network.
