September 15, 2000

BIRMINGHAM, AL — A laboratory specialist at UAB Hospital will travel to Vietnam this month to train personnel there how to interpret Pap smears. Cytotechnologist Janie Roberson will leave September 21 on the project with support from the UAB Sparkman Center for International Public Health Education.

“Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Vietnam, creating a huge additional burden to an already stressed foster care system,” Roberson said. “It also devastates the agricultural and industrial workforce. The medical system is very capable of treating cervical cancer, but there is no good system for Pap smear screenings, which would help prevent cervical cancer and therefore a large number of deaths from it.”

She will work for Viet/American Cervical Cancer Prevention Project (VACCPP), an all-volunteer, tax-exempt, non-profit organization. Its mission is to build a comprehensive, self-sustaining, and cost-effective cervical cancer prevention program for women in Vietnam.

“The VACCPP provides the only organized Pap smear screening in that country, and has demonstrated that this screening is feasible and extraordinarily inexpensive — less than 35 cents per screening,” she said.

Roberson will help train personnel at major medical centers in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Hue. She will carry with her a “two headed” teaching microscope as well as teaching samples. She will return to Alabama on October 10.