Screen saver: How new cervical screening tests look for HPV

Ahead of international HPV Awareness Day on March 4, we look at the impact of the new cervical screening test for the virus

Picture: iStock 

The new HPV cervical screening was due to start last March. Covid hit and it was put on pause until early July when CervicalCheck resumed screening. “Covid affected everything. We were cautious about sending out lots of screening invitations that might be ignored,” says Dr John Price, colposcopy adviser with CervicalCheck.

By end of 2020, CervicalCheck had caught up with screening invites – in a typical year, they send out 270,000 and get an 80% response. “We got 20% below that due to Covid, which we expected,” says Dr Price. In the 2020 Covid period (March-December) 117,000 HPV screening tests were carried out in primary care.