Western Highlands Provincial Health Authority has had an increase in women coming forward for cervical cancer screen at the Mt Hagen Provincial Hospital. Cervical Cancer is caused by the human papillomavirus which is passed from one person to another through sexual encounters. Director of Curative Services, Dr Paulus Ripa said that the screening program has been in operation since May 2022 during which over 2,500 women have been screened. “The Clinic has 8 GeneXpert Machines and they can use 4 machines at the same time to test specimens.” “The Clinic is swamped with people coming in and they see about 60-70 women in a day.” “They come in the morning sit through an awareness session, they are screened then they are given their self swapping kits where the women do the swabs themselves and the specimen is given to our staff to run the test.” Dr Ripa said their results are ready in 90 minutes and the women that are negative for the human papillomavirus are sent home and told to come back in 5 years for screening again. "About 15% of the women that come forward for screening are found to be positive for HPV and they undergo treatment right away." "From the screening, 2% of the women have evidence of cancer in the cervix." He highlighted that it is important for women between the ages of 30-60 years old to go to the clinic for free screening. The Provincial Health Authority has an outreach program where specially fitted trucks go out to the communities and conduct screening for women and girls in the area. This outreach program is done every second week where they screen about 200 women. Dr Ripa added that in the past not much awareness on Cervical cancer and screening was conducted however, the women in the communities are informed as word of mouth is spreading through the women groups that have come in for screening. "Screening is open not only to women in Western Highlands but women in surrounding provinces are more than welcome."