FDA approves the first US tool as a PAP smear alternative: NPR

Women can be at home after cervical cancer with a wand from Teal Health Screening Screening.

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Blue -green health

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first alternative in the United States at home as a papal smear, a process of generations of women has been feared and often felt painful.

The new device of Blue -green health If a “much preferred experience” is offered, the company said in its announcement and also aims to increase the screening rates by becoming more convenient.

Traditionally, gynecologists have inserted a cold metal speculum deep into the vagina of a woman to scratch cells from the cervix.

The blue -green magic wand – “built with empathy,” said the company – uses a swab to collect a vaginal test. Women will then send the example to a laboratory looking for HPV (human papilloma virus), the virus that almost all cervical cancer causes. A growing group of research has found HPV tests be high.

The FDA permit on Friday follows A The study based in the USA The screening at home was as effective as in a doctor’s office. The study also showed that women have mostly preferred to have preferred at home, and that they would rather remain up to date with greater probability.

Every year 13,000 cases Cervical cancer is diagnosed and more than 4,000 women die from the disease. The prices have dropped dramatically since then Dr. Papanicolaou Georgian published a paper in 1943 about the use of the Pap smear for screening, and it was then common.

But roughly a Quarter of women In the United States, such demonstrations are due, and medical experts say that this is the key to the ultimate goal of eliminating cervical cancer. There is also one Racial gapWith black and Indian women who die far more often from cervical cancer than white women. The HPV vaccine For young people and Preteen girls who were introduced in 2007, it has also led to a global advance to tackle the disease in this way.

At home cervical cancer screenings are already available in several other countries, including Australia And Sweden.

According to Teal Health, his self-test device will be available in California and then in California from next month. It is done by a prescription for women who are 25-65 years old through a telemedicine service that are “average at risk”. The company says that it works with insurance companies to offer cover.