Go Doc Go partnered once again with Le Korsa for an ambitious trip visiting three hospitals in a week. Dr. Juliette Faye, an amazing Senegalese Ob/Gyn, led the effort assisted by Dr. Maggie Carpenter, Dr. Becky Scott and Ellen McTigue, NP.

The first stop was Saint-Louis on the north coast of Senegal where we are assisting the hospital with setting up their first cervical cancer screening program. Go Doc Go supplied a cryotherapy machine and trained doctors, nurses, midwives and medical students in treating and screening for cervical cancer.  Almost all of the 165 women seen in Saint-Louis had never been screened before this clinic. We then returned to Tambacounda and Kolda to check on their programs and perform additional screenings and treatment. Overall for the week we saw 283 patients and treated 10 women as well as referring 2 for biopsies.  Add to this the 170 women screened in the weeks ahead of our arrival in both Tambacounda and Kolda and the numbers treated are quite impressive.

Dr. Juliette Faye who is Le Korsa’s medical director at the clinic in Dakar did a fabulous job of coordinating with the local doctors and teaching. More importantly she has agreed to visit the new program in Saint-Louis on a regular basis. Together with the medical school director we hope to expand the cervical cancer screening program in Saint -Louis to possibly include testing for HPV (human papilloma virus) the virus that causes cervical cancer.

The final good news from the trip was our meeting with Dr. Ba at the Ministry of Health back in Dakar. She was enthusiastic about the idea for Go Doc Go and Le Korsa to co-sponsor a conference for all the parties involved in preventing Cervical Cancer in Senegal – the Ministry, Ob/Gyns & other providers, and any NGOs currently doing similar work. By coming together, we can set standards and guidelines and prevent redundancy of resources.