Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 13 February 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

CervicalCheck Screening Programme Update: Discussion

Mr. Damien McCallion:

I do not have the test rate here, but Dr. McKenna or other colleagues present may have the actual difference. There is still a false negative rate as is described in screening. I think it is a factor of maybe 15% versus 25%. We can confirm that later. It is not an infallible test, but it is a much more reliable test because it prioritises women who have a particular form of HPV which would account for a large proportion of cervical cancers but not all of them.