ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 11, 1996 TAG: 9610110068
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
By summer, low-income Virginia women over age 50 will be able to get mammograms and Pap smears through local health departments. The breast and cervical cancer tests will be paid for with a five-year, $5 million federal grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state announced Thursday.
The program is for low-income women with no insurance or with insurance that does not pay for the screenings.
The cost of a mammogram in Virginia ranges from $71 to $129, a state survey found. A Pap smear can cost from $4 to $40, plus $23 to $150 for an office visit with a physician.
Beginning three years ago, private and public health care workers joined in coalitions to plan the program and are ready to contract with private physicians to provide the services, said K.C. Arntson-Morgan, coordinator for the Alleghany/Roanoke Health District.
Five screening sites are planned, including one in either Roanoke or Christiansburg, she said. The state goal is to screen 1,500 women the first year, or 300 at each site.
Women over 50 constitute the age group in which breast cancer most frequently occurs. In 1992, the state surveyed women over 40 and found that 33 percent had never had a mammogram and 16 percent had not had a Pap test in the last two years.
Southwest Virginia has some of the highest breast cancer death rates in the state for women of all ages. In a 1991 survey, the Mount Rogers Health District led the state with 54 deaths per 100,000 population. The rate for Roanoke was 52.1. For Piedmont, which includes Lynchburg, it was 53.5.
In the Alleghany district, the rate was 35.3. In the New River Valley, it was 28.7, one of the state's lowest rates.
Roanoke's death rate from cervical cancer is the third highest in the state, 32.4 per 100,000 population, the state survey found. Hampton's rate was 36.8, and Rappahannock's was 35.5. The rate for the Piedmont district was 20.5.
No cervical cancer data were available for the New River and Mount Rogers districts.
Cervical cancer began to decline with the introduction of the Pap smear in the 1940s because most deaths from it can be avoided if the cancer is detected early. The state Health Department estimates that 1,200 cases of cervical cancer will be diagnosed in Virginia this year.
Twenty-five of the state's 35 health departments are participating in the screening effort, which is part of the Virginia Department of Health's Campaign for Every Woman's Life. All of the Southwest Virginia health departments are involved.
The federal aid program began five years ago with grants to 12 states. With this year's awards, which came at the beginning of this month - National Breast Cancer Awareness Month - all states and Washington, D.C., will have programs.
To help states get screening programs started, the CDC offered planning grants in addition to the screening money. Virginia got $300,000 per year for the past three years for planning, said Becky Hartt, coordinator for the Virginia Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program.
The state has to match $1 for every $3 of federal funds it receives, she said.
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