Background: Cervical cancer incidence varies around the world with the highest rates in Eastern Africa and the lowest rates in Western Asia. In Cyprus, a small Mediterranean island, cervical cancer incidence was 6.4 per 100,000 in 2013. HPV is an established risk factor for cervical cancer with HPV-16 and HPV-18 being the most common carcinogenic strains. Cervical cancer is preventable through primary (HPV vaccination) and secondary (Pap and HPV tests) prevention. These prevention methods should be promoted, however, in order to design a cancer prevention programme and the awareness and characteristics of populations should be investigated so that prevention programmes can be targeted specifically to them. Methods: In this work, we sought to investigate awareness of HPV and cervical cancer prevention among female healthcare workers in Cyprus. To achieve this, we conducted a 60-item survey among 200 healthcare professionals in randomly selected hospitals in two different cities within Cyprus. Results: Our results revealed that nearly 10% of our participants reported not ever having had a Pap test. 88.5% of the healthcare workers knew about HPV and 86.5% reported that HPV is transmitted through sexual intercourse. 83.5% of the participants were willing to vaccinate themselves for cervical cancer prevention. Conclusion: Even though awareness and vaccination acceptance were relatively high, they are still not optimal for healthcare professionals who play an essential role in health promotion. We suggest the design of educational programmes to target this population and improve their knowledge so that they can promote cervical cancer prevention in their health practice.

Introduction Acute right iliac fossa (RIF) pain is amongst the most common presentation to the surgical team. Acute appendicitis is the most common cause of this pain and often warrants surgical intervention. In many cases intervention results in a negative appendicectomy with unnecessary complications as a result. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of pre-operative imaging in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis to reduce the rate of negative appendicectomy and unnecessary operative intervention. Methods A retrospective single centre cohort study was undertaken in a district general hospital (DGH) of all laparoscopic appendicectomies over a six-year period. 1344 cases were included and were examined for the use of pre-operative imaging (and type) or none. The sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive value for each type of imaging were analysed for their accuracy in diagnosis appendicitis based on the final histological analysis. Results The negative appendicectomy rate was found to be greatest in those undergoing ultrasonography (48.21%) as their method of pre-operative imaging whilst those who underwent computed tomography (CTAP 20.26%) had a lower rate equivalent to that of clinical diagnosis alone (20.73%). Conclusion USS is less sensitive than CT in diagnosing acute appendicitis. There is no statistically significant difference in negative appendicectomy rate between clinical diagnosis and CT diagnosis. Pre-operative imaging has a role in the diagnosis of appendicitis but needs to be utilised appropriately to reduce the strain on the surgical department and prevent the potential of a negative appendicectomy.

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