Your Health

Young Iowa member educates others about protection against cancer-causing virus
Neighbor Signe Porteshawver, Davenport, IA, is an “Uncommon Student.” She was a finalist in the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association’s annual “Uncommon Student” awards, a scholarship program based on community involvement.

Program winners are chosen based on their ability to identify a problem in their community and develop and implement a plan to solve or improve that problem. A student at Davenport Central High School, Signe’s community project, for which she earned a $750 grant, was educating high school students about Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), an infection that can lead to cervical cancer.

Her involvement with this topic began when she learned about the significant impact the HPV virus can have on women. She was introduced to the subject through a book given to her by her mother.

“I read the book and found it very interesting. I couldn’t believe that I had never heard of HPV before reading this book.”

In an effort to educate others, and with the strong backing of her mother, she distributed pamphlets, made bulletin boards, gave presentations, spoke on a radio show, and appeared in the newspaper.

There are more than 100 types of HPV, an extremely common virus. Some types cause cervical cancer in women by causing the cells of the cervix to alter and become abnormal, sometimes developing into cancer. Cervical cancer is the only cancer known to be caused by a virus, so if the abnormal cells are prevented from replicating, the cancer can be cured. And, although HPV rarely develops into cervical cancer, nearly 4,000 women die from cervical cancer in America each year.

How to identify cervical cancer
Annual pap smears are crucial in diagnosing cervical cancer. A pap smear can find abnormal cervical cell changes before they have a chance to become cancerous and/or identify cervical cancer early while it is easier to cure.

Because often there is no pain or other symptoms, a woman can have cervical cancer and not know it. This is why pap smears are so important.

“My goal was to inform everyone I could about the connection between HPV and cervical cancer, and the use of routine pap smears to detect precancerous changes,” said Signe.

“I hope that my project emboldens others to investigate ideas and to talk about important issues even if they are risky business because in the end what matters is the impact, what matters is making a difference.”

Signe will be making a difference at Tufts University, near Boston, MA, where she will continue her education in the fall.

If you have a daughter and/or granddaughter, you are encouraged to talk with her about the link between HPV and cervical cancer.



HPV vaccine
Currently a topical issue in the news, a vaccine has now been developed to prevent cervical cancer and other diseases in females caused by certain types of the HPV virus. Studies have found the vaccine to be almost 100% effective in preventing diseases caused by the four HPV types covered by the vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration has licensed this vaccine for use in girls/women ages 9-26. The vaccine is a series of three shots over a six-month period.