For more than 30 years, CDC’s National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program has provided access to timely breast and cervical cancer screening and diagnostic services to women who have low incomes and are uninsured and underserved. Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) and Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) are two of 71 programs awarded funding from CDC to provide lifesaving cancer screening services to residents of their respective states. In observance of National Cancer Prevention Month, NACDD is honored to release two new videos that highlight the programmatic efforts of these screening programs.
Alabama: Alabama ranks third in the United States for the incidence and deaths associated with cervical cancer. ADPH announced a groundbreaking, comprehensive effort known as “Operation Wipe Out,” in 2023 to eliminate cervical cancer in Alabama in ten years. In partnership with the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, TogetHER for Health, Rotary Club of Birmingham, and the American Cancer Society, this effort reaches people in 42 of the 67 Alabama counties including rural, underserved areas of the state. Alabama’s new awardee video tells the story of this groundbreaking public health effort. It features interviews with seven Operation Wipe Out principals and their perspectives on how together, they will eliminate this preventable cancer.
Mississippi: The Mississippi Breast and Cervical Cancer Program partners with about 180 enrollment and patient navigation sites throughout the state. These sites identify eligible women for the National Breast and Cervical Early Detection Program. Many of these clinics are located in communities where they are the only healthcare provider the community’s residents have access to. By working with Community Health Workers and leveraging mobile health services, early detection sites are providing vital healthcare services to the state’s most underserved communities. Mississippi’s new awardee video features two clinics who are saving lives by meeting people where they are.
Staff members from ADPH and MSDH participate in NACDD’s Cancer Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Learning Program. The P2P Learning Program provides peer-informed technical assistance to CDC-funded recipients of the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program and the Colorectal Cancer Control Program. NDCCEDP and CRCCP awardees can contact p2plearning@chronicdisease.org to get involved in the P2P Learning Program. NACDD is grateful for the support from CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control and the storytelling expertise from Rocket Camp to make these videos possible.