How residents, workers can get free cervical cancer screening in Quezon City

MANILA, Philippines – Cervical cancer screening will be available in select SouthStar Drug branches in Quezon City starting this February.

The Quezon City local government launched a community-based cervical cancer screening program on Wednesday, January 15, in collaboration with the Department of Health (DOH), Jhpiego Philippines, SouthStar Drug, and Women Workers for Health Empowerment Network.

Cervical cancer ranks second, next to breast cancer, among the top types of cancer that plague Filipino women. The DOH encourages girls aged 9 to 14 to get vaccinated against HPV, while women aged 30 to 65 are urged to get screened for cervical cancer. (READ: Boys should be included in HPV vaccination drive – specialist)

Data from Jhpiego show that 8,549 Filipino women get diagnosed with cervical cancer each year and over half or 4,380 succumb to it.

Quezon City has a goal — to test 20,000 women aged 30 to 49 in 2025 — and is dedicating P28 million to achieve it. Here’s everything you need to know.

Where to go

Aside from health centers and lying-in clinics around Quezon City, women can soon get cervical cancer screening via the following branches:

• Southstar Drug – Matalino
• Southstar Drug – Robinson’s Novaliches

“‘Yung pharmacists nila doon (Their pharmacists) and the pharmacy assistants are trained on how to counsel and how to demostrate paano kulektahin (how to collect specimen),” Karen See, a physician and the cancer control coordinator of Quezon City, told Rappler.

All women residing and working in Quezon City can avail of the free HPV DNA testing in the select Southstar branches.

Ladies need to inquire over the counter about the testing and provide their IDs to confirm their age.

How does it work

Patients will be tested using an HPV (human papillomavirus) DNA self-testing kit. The test is to determine the presence of the virus which can cause or increase the risk of cervical cancer.

See noted it is similar to home-COVID test kits, except that the specimen is collected from a woman’s cervix. The swab is also mixed in with the provided solution, but test results are not instant.

Patients have two options — they can get tested either at the SouthStar Drug where trained personnel can help them collect specimen or they can bring the test kits home, do the testing by themselves, and return the specimen kit to the selected branch within a specified timeframe.

“May correct position ‘yun para makolekta ‘yun, na hindi nasasaktan ‘yung babae (There’s a correct position for collecting specimen, so that the woman will not get hurt),” See said.

After collection, the pharmacy assistant will store the specimen kit and a rider — another partner of Jhpiego — will collect them from Southstar Drug and have them delivered to the Quezon City local government unit for testing.

Getting test results

According to See, results will take about 7 to 10 days upon getting swabbed. Patients will be notified of their status via e-mail.

“Usually, ‘pag nakita namin na positive, tatawag kami agad (Usually, when we see that they tested positive for the HPV virus, we will call them right away),” she said, adding that they will already provide counseling to the patients.

Testing positive for HPV does not necessarily mean that they already have cervical cancer. However, it could be taken as a “warning,” the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted.

What happens next?

Once the patient is informed of their status, a healthcare worker will then schedule the patient for one session of a 5- to 10-minute thermal ablation, which uses a heated probe “to destroy the precancerous cells” as health organization PATH explains.

Patients will also be scheduled for check-ups to see if there will be discharges, among others.

All of this will remain free of charge.

“Usually, after one year, uulitin natin ‘yung test, ‘yung HPV DNA, and then kung positive pa rin, hindi ka na ite-thermal ablation. I-refer na namin sa gynecologist,” See said.

(Usually, after one year, we will repeat the test, the HPV DNA, and then if they still test positive, they will no longer go through thermal ablation. We will refer them to a gynecologist.)

Only in QC?

Southstar and Jhpiego will be piloting the program in a total of four cities: Quezon City, Manila, Navotas, Parañaque, and Taguig.

Carole Malenab, the corporate affairs manager of Southdrug’s drugstore segment, told Rappler that Jhpiego will still take care of the whole testing process.

Meanwhile, Southstar will house the testing tents for collecting specimen. – Rappler.com