From gynaecology offices to screening campaigns: a brief history of cervical cancer prevention in Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Teixeira,Luiz Antonio
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: História. Ciências. Saúde-Manguinhos
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-59702015000100221
• topic: Neoplasms; cervical cancer; Pap smear; screening programs; Brazil

This paper discusses the knowledge and medical practices relating to cervical cancer in Brazil. It analyses the growing medical interest in the disease at the beginning of the twentieth century, the development of prevention techniques in the 1940s, and the emergence of screening programs in the 1960s. It argues that the development of knowledge on cervical cancer was related simultaneously to a number of factors: transformations in medical knowledge, the development of the idea that the disease should be treated as a public health problem, the increased concerns with women's health, and major changes to the Brazilian healthcare system. The article concludes by identifying a number of issues that are still proving to be obstacles to control of the disease.