David Walmer, associate global health professor at the Duke Global Health Institute, has long been struck by the alarmingly high incidence of cervical cancer in Haiti, despite the fact that it is highly preventable. The death rate from cervical cancer in Haiti is 30 times higher than that in the United States. Through his 20+ years of cervical cancer research, Walmer has learned that the annual Pap smears that women take for granted in the U.S.—which screen for pre-cancerous changes to a women’s cervix—aren’t considered the gold standard in Haiti.
