TRIPS

ParaElla Team Feb 2024

Our Impact: Recent Screening Results and Training-

During our recent mission, Para Ella not only provided life-saving cervical cancer screenings but also trained 36 students on how to conduct these vital procedures. Their training ensures that communities will continue to benefit from skilled healthcare long after our mission ends.

Screening Results:

PLP Community

Total Screened: 26
- Normal Results: 18
- Abnormal Results: 8
  - 5 to return in 1 year
  - 3 referred to Gynecology for further evaluation
Unable to Screen: 5 (due to menses, p hyster)

RusRus Community

Total Screened: 14
- Normal Results: 8
- Abnormal Results: 5 (to return in 1 year)
- Referrals: 1 to Gynecology

Suhi Community

Total Screened: 10
- Normal Results: 9
- Abnormal Results: 1 (to return in 1 year)

Why These Numbers Matter

The impact of these screenings is profound. Women with abnormal results have been scheduled for follow-ups or referred to specialists, ensuring timely care. Meanwhile, the training provided to local students empowers them to continue this essential work, building healthier communities for years to come.

Nurses Training For Cervical Cancer Screening - (Puerto Lempira & Rus Rus)

Who are the most important people in our lives? Our mothers, wives, daughters, aunties, grandmamas... The WOMEN! What is the number 1 cancer killer of women in Honduras? Cervical Cancer! Screening for cervical cancer seemed to be a natural next service line for IHS.

While volunteering in Tanzania, I had learned this screening technique that modified my already known skill in performing colposcopy. In 2022, I had a chance to volunteer in Senegal with a group that trains hospital staff to perform the test and then treat abnormal results. The materials are simple, cheap, and easy to find. The procedure can be taught to any medical professional in about 45 minutes. This seemed perfect for IHS to add. In October 2023, we met with the Puerto Lempira based county health department to talk about what was already in place for cancer screening and care. We then toured the Puerto Lempira hospital with staff and got a feel for how we might be able to train local nurses and doctors in this highly portable and effective screening method. It turns out, there is an HPV vaccine, and it has been in use in teen- age girls since about 2016. The HPV is a virus that causes about 98% of cervical cancers, and the vaccine is highly effective in preventing cancer. It is also something the country distributes to even remote villages. That’s great, but it leaves out the women who were over 18 in 2016, and that is a lot of people who

continue to have the cancer risk. Pap smear is done in the traditional way and takes 1-3 months to get results. During our training sessions when we returned in February 2024, we met patients who were in their late 30’s and early 40’s who had never been screened. We also found one cancer.

Most of the local nurses we trained (more than 30) were in Puerto Lempira but we also trained 4 nurses in the Rus Rus area. All these nurses worked hard and did cervical cancer screenings for over 130 patients.

We plan to return in February 2025 to do more training of the doctors and nurses. They were overwhelmingly interested when we were last in Puerto Lempira, so I am trying to bring more doctors to instruct the locals. If you know someone who has performed colposcopy as part of their practice and would be interested in going, please let me know! We will also be shipping supplies to give to the students and to use in the care of the patients.

It has already been very rewarding, and we look forward to being able to bring this education to more remote places in a way that can sustain the practice and care for these most important patients!

Garrick (Rik) Olsen (President of Para Ella).

Garrick Olsen Pictured Above