Emma Mhic Mhathúna

Preventing cervical cancer – HPV vaccine uptake increases in Ireland

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about Emma Mhic Mhathúna was a 37-year-old Irish mother of five who died in October 2018 from cervical cancer – an easily diagnosed and treated cancer if discovered early. She died because of a pap smear scandal in Ireland that led her to receive a false negative on her two pap smear tests in 2016. As a result of this scandal, HPV vaccine uptake has increased for preventing cervical cancer.Read More »Preventing cervical cancer – HPV vaccine uptake increases in Ireland

Cervical smear scandal – why the HPV vaccine is the best choice

Emma Mhic Mhathúna was a 37-year-old Irish mother of five who died on 7 October 2018 from cervical cancer – an easily diagnosed and treated cancer if discovered early. She died because of a cervical smear scandal in Ireland that led her to receive a false negative on her two pap smear tests in 2016 as a part of the CervicalCheck program run by Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE), which manages Ireland’s healthcare.

As a result of this cervical smear scandal, Ms. Mhathúna sued the HSE and the US clinical laboratory, Quest Diagnostics, which performed the tests. She settled in court for €7.5 million from HSE and Quest. Another US-based clinical laboratory, Clinical Pathology Laboratories (CPL) of Austin, TX, was involved in a similar lawsuit from another Irish woman, Vicky Phelan, who also received a false negative – they settled for €2.5 million.

Ms. Mhathúna’s death was both tragic and a cautionary tale about relying upon the results of this test. Read More »Cervical smear scandal – why the HPV vaccine is the best choice