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The Ministry of Health in Fiji is looking forward to seeking an HPV molecular testing machine to replace the current Pap smear method for cervical cancer screening at hospitals.

With cervical cancer being the second most common cancer among Fijian women, Medical Scientist Navneeta Nair at CWM Hospital stresses the necessity of advanced technologies.

She adds that the new machine would enable the testing of multiple samples, addressing the current limitation of one-at-a-time testing.

“But unfortunately, because of the expenses, the resources, and everything else, we are still limited to thin preparation. But that is something that we will have in the future. So once we have molecular testing, we’ll be able to test a lot of samples all at once, instead of what we are doing right now because it’s mostly manual. So we are testing one sample at a time, and then we have a lack of resources.”

The Ministry of Health is exploring assistance from countries like Australia and New Zealand that are already utilizing these advanced technologies.