AEGiS-Chicago Tribune: Partnering for health

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Partnering for health

Chicago Tribune - May 18, 2005
T. Shawn Taylor

Black women are twice as likely to die from cervical cancer as are white women. So The Balm in Gilead, a New York-based AIDS awareness group, recently came to Chicago to launch a national health initiative to educate black women about human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes cervical cancer.

"We want more women to take the HPV test," said Pernessa Seele, founder and CEO of The Balm in Gilead, adding that more than half the nation's women carry HPV, a sexually transmitted disease. An HPV carrier who has an abnormal Pap test is at risk for cancer, she said.

Seele, along with a cancer survivor and two physicians, were on hand recently to launch The ISIS Project (Intimate Session for Informed Sexuality) in Chicago at St. Paul CME Church, 4644 S. Dearborn St. To get the word out, Seele's group is partnering with the women's missionary groups of historically black church denominations in five U.S. cities.

The HPV test is similar to the Pap test, but women shouldn't wait for their doctor to offer it, Seele said.

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For information on HPV and how to participate, go to theisisproject.org, or visit balmingilead.org.

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