COMMUNITY GROUPS FROM SIX COUNTIES INVITED TO
CERVICAL CANCER EDUCATION AND STRATEGY MEETING

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A meeting of community leaders from six Illinois counties to discuss strategies and receive training on ways to reduce cervical cancer deaths has been scheduled for Oct. 6 at Memorial Medical Center in Springfield by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Among those invited to participate are individuals connected with housing authorities, halfway houses, women’s shelters, family planning programs, businesses, unemployment agencies and community centers in Bond, Clinton, Franklin, Marion, Rock Island and Williamson counties.

Training will focus on ways to increase public awareness of cervical cancer and educate women about the importance of annual screenings.

In 2003, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) identified the counties as areas in the state with consistently high mortality rates for cervical cancer among white women over a nine-year period (1990-1998).

Illinois was asked by CDC and NCI to be part of an eight-state national cervical cancer demonstration project to test ways to increase public awareness and education of cervical cancer as a way to reduce mortality from the disease.

Once Illinois agreed to participate in the effort, a collaborative cervical cancer team was formed that consists of representatives of the Department’s Office of Women’s Health, American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and the University of Illinois Extension Services.

Members of that team will spearhead the informational and strategic meeting with the community leaders.

The meeting will be from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the SIU School of Medicine offices in Memorial Medical Center, 701 N. First St., Room D229.

The cervical cancer mortality rates per 100,000 population for the identified counties for 1990-1998 were: Marion 8.9 cases per year or 19 deaths over the nine-year period; Franklin 8.2 cases per year or 19 deaths; Bond 6.8 cases per year or 6 deaths; Williamson 6.3 cases per year or 19 deaths; Rock Island 5.1 cases per year or 38 deaths; and Clinton 5.1 cases per year or 8 deaths.