Course 2

Under the ICMR/AU - STRC Health Practitioners/Researchers Capacity Building Scheme, a Call for Applications was announced (in June, 2019) for training of African researchers through seven courses to be conducted by the ICMR Institutes in India in the year 2019.

The second course on ‘Cervical Cancer Screening for Pathologists’ has been organized at ICMR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, Noida during 11-13 September,2019 and attended by 9 African researchers from Nigeria, Sudan and Zambia.

The course aimed at providing a comprehensive overview of cervical cancer screening. The major focus was training on cytology-based screening along with a brief appraisal of other cervical cancer screening modalities. The scientific program included didactics by eminent faculty covering various topics on cervical cancer spanning from epidemiology, screening recommendations (International as well as Indian) and cervical smear interpretation as per the latest Bethesda System (normal smear, specific infections, squamous and glandular intraepithelial lesions) to HPV-based detection methods and current scenario of HPV vaccination. The highlights of the course were the interactive slide microscopy sessions, challenging case discussions, demonstration of lab techniques and HPV diagnostics.

The African researchers attending the course at NICPR also visited ICMR Hqrs on 12th September, 2019 and met Secretary DHR and Director General, ICMR and shared their views, feedback about the course and utilization of the training.