Aug 10, 2026 · 48 min · 15 segments
Siyabonga Motha speaks with Salome Meyer, Director at the Cancer Alliance of South Africa, about the urgent need to raise awareness around HPV and take action to protect young girls and women…
Salome MeyerGuest
Siyabonga MothaHost
I'm going to invite people to call us now on 011-883-0702, on 702 on Cape Talk, on 021-446-0567, on WhatsApp on 0727-02-1702, talking about cervical cancer this evening.
Throw in those questions, those calls, if you have anything to ask, maybe you have concerns and you want to maybe to understand this cancer issue.
um yeah just send us those whatsapp messages and so you can talk about um then maybe we can have this conversation with our guest this evening maybe another part that i'd want us to touch on it would be um and and then you did touch on and say unfortunately with the hpv you can only see it once you have you know um being scanned or you know being you know your body has been you've went for those checkups and all of that And then it takes me to my question to understand now, how often do people ordinarily go to clinics, to doctors, to have their bodies scanned, to check if everything's still fine? Is the trend looking good in South Africa or is it not really looking proper?
But we do know that in the private sector, it's much easier to access your healthcare professional for a cervical screen, whether it be still the old pap smear or whether your healthcare professional have moved over to HPV DNA testing.
The cervical cancer policy have indicated that in South Africa women have to go for their regular screens, and that was the previous policy, that have to go for their screens from the age of 30 at 10-year intervals.
And unfortunately, we have what we call an opportunistic screening regime in South Africa.
And actually, that is the day on which cervical screenings can occur at the clinic.
What is now changed with the elimination of cervical cancer strategy is that we have changed that now to say that from the age of 25, women have to be screened, specifically also your women that are living with HIV.
And then again, if you are HPV positive, you will be screened on a more regular basis.
They don't have the appropriate information that they need to go on a regular basis.
They actually have to take leave and they cannot get that and for that it's a loss of income.
And then, as I also have indicated, the challenge that we had with the previous methodology of pap smears where we still actually used the old method of pap smear taking and women's results was problematic in the sense that it came back not a good smear and therefore you've got to recall the woman.
Getting hold of that woman if she's living in a rural community and have to travel far distances becomes difficult.
I'm going to invite people to call us now on 011-883-0702, on 702 on Cape Talk, on 021-446-0567, on WhatsApp on 0727-02-1702, talking about cervical cancer this evening.
Throw in those questions, those calls, if you have anything to ask, maybe you have concerns and you want to maybe to understand this cancer issue.
um yeah just send us those whatsapp messages and so you can talk about um then maybe we can have this conversation with our guest this evening maybe another part that i'd want us to touch on it would be um and and then you did touch on and say unfortunately with the hpv you can only see it once you have you know um being scanned or you know being you know your body has been you've went for those checkups and all of that And then it takes me to my question to understand now, how often do people ordinarily go to clinics, to doctors, to have their bodies scanned, to check if everything's still fine? Is the trend looking good in South Africa or is it not really looking proper?
But we do know that in the private sector, it's much easier to access your healthcare professional for a cervical screen, whether it be still the old pap smear or whether your healthcare professional have moved over to HPV DNA testing.
The cervical cancer policy have indicated that in South Africa women have to go for their regular screens, and that was the previous policy, that have to go for their screens from the age of 30 at 10-year intervals.
And unfortunately, we have what we call an opportunistic screening regime in South Africa.
And actually, that is the day on which cervical screenings can occur at the clinic.
What is now changed with the elimination of cervical cancer strategy is that we have changed that now to say that from the age of 25, women have to be screened, specifically also your women that are living with HIV.
And then again, if you are HPV positive, you will be screened on a more regular basis.
They don't have the appropriate information that they need to go on a regular basis.
They actually have to take leave and they cannot get that and for that it's a loss of income.
And then, as I also have indicated, the challenge that we had with the previous methodology of pap smears where we still actually used the old method of pap smear taking and women's results was problematic in the sense that it came back not a good smear and therefore you've got to recall the woman.
Getting hold of that woman if she's living in a rural community and have to travel far distances becomes difficult.
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