The woman’s health is important during the pandemic too. This is the message with which the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection, in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Swiss Cooperation Office (SDC) and other partners, restart the national awareness-raising campaign ‘Stay Healthy! Do the PAP-test!’ that will last until September inclusive.
Contacted by IPN for details, Irina Lipcanu, Communications Analyst at UNFPA Moldova, said the initiative will be promoted all over Moldova. “This is the second phase of the campaign. The first phase began in January 2020 and lasted until the end of March 2020. Owing to the pandemic, particular activities were stopped, including the given campaign. This way we had to adjust to the conditions of the pandemic. We now resumed the campaign with safety measures determined by COVID-19 and with a slightly adjusted message,” she stated.
“At the second phase of the campaign, greater emphasis will be placed on ATU Gagauzia. We planned to make commercials, to work with local influencers as a study carried out in 2018 showed that the women in the southern districts and in ATU Gagauzia do such a test rarer.”
According to Minister of Health, Labor and Social Protection Viorica Dumbrăveanu, the campaign ‘Stay Healthy! Do the PAP-test!’ that was resumed on July 29 aims to raise the women’s awareness of the importance of doing the PAP-test and to urge the women to go to the family doctor and ask to have such a test once in three years.
UNFPA Resident Representative in Moldova Nigina Abaszada said that UNFPA Moldova, together with other partners, during the last few years continuously supported the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection in its efforts to offer cervical screening services of a high quality and to save women’s lives. “Cervical screening is a component part of the essential health services that should be accessible to women in all periods, including during the pandemic. We hope the message of the information campaign will reach as many women in Moldova as possible and they will schedule an appointment with the family doctor to do the cytology test in safe conditions,” stated Nigina Abaszada.
The cytology test (Pap-test) regularly made between 25 and 61 years and HPV vaccination in adolescence ensure a maximum protection against cervical cancer. In Moldova, the cytology test is done free of charge.
A national study of the knowledge, attitudes and practices of cervical cancer prevention shows 59% of the women aged between 25 and 61 in Moldova have never done a cytology test. Most of the women who didn’t do the test are from southern Moldova and from poor families.
