PROJECT EMA:
A PRECURSOR
In Argentina, Dr. Silvina Arrossi directed the “Demonstration Study for the Introductions of the HPV Test” between the years 2012-2014 with the aim of evaluating the performance of the test as primary screening in programmatic conditions. The project included more than 50.000 women from the Jujuy province, and demonstrated that incorporating the HPV test duplicated the National Cervical Cancer Prevention Program’s ability to detect precancerous and cancerous lesions.
Furthermore, it identified the central components of the use of the HPV Test at a programmatic level as a communication strategy, algorithms of follow-up care and treatment, and work manuals for the implementation of the HPV test.
The Jujuy Demonstration Study in 2012, the National Cancer Institute along with the Jujuy Province’s Ministry of Health and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC-OMD), implemented the research study EMA- Evaluación Modalidad Autotoma (Evaluation Methodology Self-Collection)
The EMA study was a cluster randomized trial which involved over 200 community health workers and 6000 women. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the HPV self-collection strategy in an attempt to increase screening coverage.
Moreover, in the framework of the EMA Study, quantitative and qualitative studies were carried out in order to understand women’s and the health care institutions’ perspectives on the self-collection.
Due to these results in 2014, in the province of Jujuy, self-collection was incorporated as a public health policy strategy.
Currently, the implementation of this method has reached the provinces of Misiones, Tucumán and Catamarca, as well as the La Matanza municipality in the province of Buenos Aires.
