GHESKIO HPV Clinic

Sean Behan and Dr. Arash Rafii at GHESKIO in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

As a Research Assistant at the Center for Global Health at WCMC over the past year, I have been fortunate to study one of the largest and least studied public health crises facing the women of Haiti. Haiti has one of the highest incidence rates of cervical cancer of any country in the world. Though highly preventable and curable, cervical cancer prevention, screening and detection programs do not exist in Haiti. Furthermore, Haiti has the highest seroprevalence of HIV (2.2% in 2010) in the Caribbean. HIV infected women are more likely to develop cervical cancer than HIV-negative women, and these cancers are more aggressive and less responsive to standard therapy. Gaining an understanding of this crisis through research will open the door for developing the methodologies and protocols critically needed to begin fighting this disease. The objective of our two current studies in Port-au-Prince is to determine the prevalence of cervical HPV infection and high grade cervical dysplasia in (1) HIV-positive women eligible to initiate anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and (2) HIV-negative commercial sex workers in Haiti.   This April, I traveled to GHESKIO with Dr. Arash Rafii Tabrizi from WCMC-Q. Over ten days we worked with GHESKIO doctors, nurses, and field workers and successfully screened 207 women.  I have learned that we must look for preventative and sustainable solutions to the cervical cancer epidemic in Haiti. This comes through research. We must continue to ascertain the HPV prevalence, subtypes, HIV association and high-risk groups within the Haitian population in order to introduce an effective prevention, detection, and treatment program. I believe this commitment to research will yield sustainable solutions in the fight against cervical cancer in Haiti and can be applied to other resource-poor settings.   Sean BehanCornell University ‘11