Reliability of Visual Inspection After Acetic Acid Staining in Screening for Cervical Pre-malignant Lesion Among Female Subjects in a Rural Tertiary Hospital in Nigeria

This study was carried out in order to assess the sensitivity and specificity of visual inspection after acetic acid staining (VIA) using Papanicolaou smear as the gold standard screening method for cervical premalignant lesion.Two hundred and twenty (220) consecutive and consenting women ages 20 -70 years, attending Federal Medical Centre, Ido-Ekiti, Ekiti State, were recruited.Relevant data were collected using interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaires.In conclusion, the prevalence of pre-malignant lesion of cervical cancer is high in this study.It is therefore recommended that awareness of cervical cancer and its screening should be improved through health education campaigns.VIA can serve as an alternative to Papanicolaou smear in resource-limited countries, since it has high level of specificity and sensitivity as Papanicolaou smear.