[00:00.10]From VOA Learning English,
[00:03.03]this is the Health Report.
[00:05.08]The World Health Organization (WHO) says
[00:08.25]cervical cancer kills 250,000 women worldwide each year.
[00:15.11]WHO officials say four out of five of those women
[00:19.90]live in poor countries,
[00:21.56]like in the west African nation of Burkina Faso.
[00:25.26]Doctors there are using a simple low-cost method
[00:29.97]to test for cervical cancer.
[00:32.26]They say the test can save thousands of lives every year.
[00:36.86]Yacouba Ouedraogo directs the cervical cancer prevention program
[00:42.18]at a health clinic in the capital, Ouagadougou.
[00:45.63]He says cervical cancer has become the most common cancer
[00:54.04]among women in Burkina Faso,
[00:56.44]but he says finding and treating the cancer
[00:59.89]in its early stages has recently become much easier.
[01:04.25]Doctors there are using a small piece of cotton
[01:08.11]covered with distilled white vinegar
[01:10.96]- the vinegar can be bought at almost any market in Africa.
[01:15.42]The doctors rub the cotton swab on the opening of a woman's uterus.
[01:21.38]Once the liquid touches the organ,
[01:23.73]any pre-cancerous or cancerous cells will turn white.
[01:29.19]Dr. Stanislas Paul Nebie has been using the vinegar test
[01:34.54]on his patients since 2010.
[01:37.09]He says it is very simple, and unlike other tests,
[01:43.96]which can be costly,
[01:45.61]and require sending cell samples to a laboratory.
[01:50.00]With the vinegar test, he says,
[01:52.20]any problems can be seen immediately
[01:55.35]and treated during the same visit.
[01:58.59]At a medical center in Ouagadougou,
[02:01.37]women pay $4 for the test and treatment
[02:05.11]for any cells that show signs of cancer.
[02:08.56]Dr. Nebie says this is a good deal,
[02:17.26]considering the high cost of radiology
[02:20.32]or surgical treatments if the cancer is not caught early.
[02:25.12]He said medical centers, even in rural villages,
[02:30.68]can and are performing the vinegar test
[02:34.29]and suggesting patients for treatment.
[02:37.40]Burkina Faso does not yet have numbers
[02:44.75]for how many lives the vinegar test has saved.
[02:49.10]But doctors in India announced earlier this year
[02:53.45]that the test had cut cervical cancer deaths
[02:56.86]by 31 percent in a study there.
[03:00.97]They said the study involved 150,000 women.
[03:05.98]Most cervical cancer comes as a result of the human papillomavirus,
[03:12.15]which is passed through sexual contact.
[03:15.11]The disease often has few signs until it reaches advanced stage
[03:21.16]and becomes more difficult to treat.
[03:24.46]Women simply do not know they have it,
[03:27.66]sometimes until it is too late.
[03:31.92]And that's the Health Report from VOA Learning English.