Home >> Pan American Health And Education Foundation Receives $1.4 Million From Gates Foundation

Pan American Health and Education Foundation Receives $1.4 Million from Gates Foundation

Dana Weckesser

(PRWEB) July 8, 2005 -- The Pan American Health and Education Foundation (PAHEF) has received a $1.4 million grant from the Global Health Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support cervical cancer prevention efforts of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization in Peru, which has a high incidence of cervical cancer. PAHO is one of five international agencies of the Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention, working together to prevent cervical cancer in developing countries.This grant will build on the good work accomplished to date in a low-resource setting in the remote Amazonia region of Peru where PAHO established a demonstration project to evaluate alternative screening and treatment methods for cervical cancer prevention. Specifically it will support continuation of the project to evaluate the population effectiveness of the low cost cervical cancer screening technology called the Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) test. Dr. Stephen Corber, Area Manager, Disease Prevention and Control, points out the importance of this project. “VIA is a promising screening test for cervical cancer prevention programs in low-resource settings. Longitudinal data are needed to understand the effectiveness of VIA to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer and the number of deaths caused by cervical cancer.” PAHEF Executive Director, Ms. Jess Gersky, adds that “The findings of this study will contribute to the base of evidence on the effects of this screening method and thus to its validation for large scale application in Peru and in other low-resource areas of the Americas.” The Pan American Health and Education Foundation is an independent philanthropic organization working to combat disease, lengthen life, improve health care services, foster health research, and enhance the capacities of health care workers in the Americas through grant-making and direct program implementation. The Foundation works to promote philanthropy as a core social value, and shares the Pan American Health Organization’s vision of Health for All. To learn what the Foundation is doing to improve the lives of the peoples of the Americas, please visit the Foundation at www.pahef.org.