Klinik Vizitasyon, Haiti: First PAP

This week brings a new service to the people that Visitation Clinic serves. For the first time, women in our region will have access to PAP testing for cervical cancer. These tests, which are routine in the US, are quite rare in Haiti. In fact, it took an unusual amount of determination and planning to make this happen. The key players were a group of doctors and technicians from New Jersey and our administrative team in Haiti. In order to perform PAP tests, we needed to get particular dyes, stains and reagents, which can't be found in Haiti and can't be carried on airplanes. In fact, it took a network of contacts and interminable phone calls to find a source in the Dominican Republic. Then it had to be purchased by an agent and shipped on a bus to Port-au-Prince, where our administrator waited to meet it. On Sunday our team of eight from NJ flew in with the rest of the supplies and set up a temporary second laboratory just for these tests. So far this week, over 120 patients have been screened.