Improving uptake of cervical cancer screening services for women living with HIV and attending chronic care services in rural Malawi

Malawi has the second highest age-standardised incidence rate and the highest mortality rate of cervical cancer in the world. Though the prevalence of HIV is currently 11.7% for Malawian women of reproductive age, cervical cancer screening rates remain low. To address this issue, we integrated cervical cancer screening into a dual HIV and non-communicable disease clinic at a rural district hospital in Neno, Malawi. The project was implemented between January 2017 and March 2018 using the PlanDo-Study-Act model of quality improvement (QI).

At baseline (January to December 2016), only 13 women living with HIV were screened for cervical cancer. One year after the implementation of the QI project, 73% (n=547) of women aged 25 to 49 years living with HIV enrolled in HIV care were screened for cervical cancer, with 85.3% of these receiving the screening test for the first time. The number of women living with HIV accessing cervical cancer services increased almost 10 times (from four per month to 39 per month).

Key enablers in our QI process included: strong mentorship, regular provision of cervical cancer health talks throughout the hospital, nationally accredited cervical cancer prevention training for all providers, consistent community engagement, continuous monitoring and evaluation, and direct provision of resources to strengthen gaps in the public system. This practical experience integrating cervical cancer screening into routine HIV care may provide valuable lessons for scale-up in rural Malawi.