Delphi Screener used in unique high-risk HPV prevalence study amongst pregnant women in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is facing high numbers of cervical cancer, caused by the high risk HPV (hrHPV). A better understanding of the burden of the virus types provides the opportunity to work on vaccination and screening initiatives. To obtain insight in the prevalence of hrHPV in women, a unique study on cervical cancer will be conducted amongst pregnant Ethiopian women in 2013. The Delphi Screener will be used to collect lavage samples from pregnant women.

Five years ago, a strong collaboration platform on gynecological cancer has been established between the Department of Gynecology (Dr. Kantelhardt and Prof. Thomssen) and Clinical Epidemiology (Prof. Stang) of the Martin Luther University, Halle (Saale), Germany and the School of Public Health (Dr. Adamu) and Radiotherapy Center (Dr. Mathewos) at Addis Abeba University, Ethiopia. The international Women´s Health working group from the German Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology (DGGG) is also involved.

The study team will collect 500 specimens of women between the age of 20 and 40 for high risk HPV testing. Women from different ethical backgrounds and from across the whole country will be invited. In Ethiopia women do not frequently visit the health care system. Therefore the team decided to focus on pregnant women as most of them do visit a health care worker once during pregnancy. During this visit the women will be asked to take a vaginal-cervical specimen by herself under supervision of a study team member from Germany. The specimens will be tested by the Deutsche Krebsforschungszentrum (German Cancer Research Institute DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany. The team of Markus Schmitt, under supervision of Dr. Michael Pawlita, has a high reputation in molecular testing.

Traditional sampling techniques like brushes and swabs, do actually scrape the vaginal wall and may cause lesions or induce labor. The Delphi Screener is a smooth, a-traumatic lavage sampling method. The Delphi Screener is reliable, user friendly and atraumatic, reasons for the study team to use the Delphi Screener in pregnant women.

The Delphi Screener is prefilled with a small amount (teaspoon) of saline, which is released into the cervix area and then returns inside the device with a high yield of cells. The Delphi Screener has been used by more then 30.000 women in clinical studies and has shown to collect reliable specimens in the field of hrHPV testing¹. Either a doctor or the woman herself (self-sampling) can use the Screener to collect a specimen.

January 2013

¹ Deleré Y et al. Cervicovaginal self-sampling is a reliable method for determination of prevalence of human papillomavirus genotypes in women aged 20 to 30 years; J Clin Microbiol. 2011 Oct;49(10):3519-22. doi: 10.1128/JCM.01026-11. Epub 2011 Aug 3

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