Fighting a Cancer with Vinegar and Ingenuity

Thailand has gone further than any other nation in adopting a simple, brief and inexpensive technique for preventing cervical cancer. Endorsed last year by the World Health Organization, “VIA/cryo” involves brushing vinegar on a woman’s cervix, which makes precancerous spots turn white. A nurse can immediately freeze the white spot off with a metal probe cooled by a carbon dioxide tank available from any Coca-Cola bottler.

Since Thailand’s first VIA/cryo pilot trial 11 years ago, not a single one of that trial’s 6,000 female participants has developed full-blown cancer. The technique is now routine in 29 of Thailand’s 75 provinces.

VIA/cryo - or visual inspection with acetic acid (vinegar) followed, if needed, by cryotherapy - reveals pre-tumors more accurately than a typical Pap smear. Freezing is about 90 percent effective, with the main side effect of a burning sensation that fades in a day or two. The procedure’s higher false-positivity rate means some women will get the therapy unnecessarily, however.

“Some doctors resist” VIA/cryo, said Dr. Wachara Eamratsameekool, a gynecologist at the rural Roi Et Hospital who helped pioneer the procedure. “They call it ‘poor care for poor people.’ This is a misunderstanding. It’s the most effective use of our resources.”

With its more than 100,000 nurses, who are largely in charge at a network of rural clinics, Thailand seems ideal for VIA/cryo. The screenings are offered free at public clinics, and 500,000 of the 8 million targeted women ages 30-44 have been screened at least once.

Screening twice during her 30s cuts a woman’s risk of developing cervical cancer by 65 percent, according to studies by the Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention, an international coalition supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!