New Zealand cervical cancer screening project boosted

Epidemiologists from the University of Auckland have recently joined New Zealand's national audit of invasive cervical cancers. The government's director-general of health, Karen Poutasi, has welcomed the move, saying their expertise will help take forward the project, whose aim is to improve the National Cervical Screening Programme (NCSP). The audit itself can only begin after proposals having been reviewed by a number of ethics committees. "We expect ethics committee approval by early April and the audit will start immediately after that," said Dr Poutasi.