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Testing in resource-poor areas
Many resource-poor areas cannot provide regular screening or are unable to offer cytology-based screening. These areas areas must rely on infrequent screening, or alternative methods screening such as HPV testing or, when that is not available, visual inspection with acetic acid followed by treatment with cryotherapy. A study of cervical cancer screening of 131,746 women in rural India found that a single DNA test reduced the number of advanced cervical cancers and deaths over 8 years, while a single acetic acid examination or a single Pap screening did not. However, the DNA test cost US$30–40, which was unaffordable in many regions, it is time-consuming, and requires a sophisticated laboratory infrastructure. A simple, affordable, and accurate test is being evaluated in China and other countries. The new test may become available on the market in 2010 at significantly lower cost than current tests.

With HPV testing, there was a 50 percent reduction in the number of deaths from cervical cancer compared to unscreened women. Compared to other methods, the research showed the HPV testing reported the fewest false negatives. The WHO recommends HPV testing with treatment for women with positive test results.

Visual inspection to detect pre-cancer or cancer
In areas where Pap smear screening is not available or affordable, other methods of testing have been evaluated.

Visual inspection of the cervix, using acetic acid (white vinegar; VIA) or Lugol's iodine (VILI) to highlight precancerous lesions so they can be viewed with the "naked eye", shifts the identification of precancer from the laboratory to the clinic. This method is also referred to as direct visual inspection or cervicoscopy.Such procedures eliminate the need for laboratories and transport of specimens, require very little equipment and provide women with immediate test results. A range of medical professionals—doctors, nurses, or professional midwives—can effectively perform the procedure, provided they receive adequate training and supervision. As a screening test, VIA may perform as well as or better than cervical cytology in accurately identifying pre-cancerous lesions. This has been demonstrated in various studies where trained physicians and mid-level providers correctly identified between 45% and 79% of women at high risk of developing cervical cancer. Though VIA has limited specificity and low positive predictive value (~10%), it is economical, requires little equipment, and provides immediate results. By comparison, the sensitivity of cytology has been shown to be between 47 and 62%. Cytology provides higher specificity (fewer false positives) than VIA. Like cytology, one of the limitations of VIA is that results are highly dependent on the accuracy of an individual's interpretation. This means that initial training and on-going quality control are of paramount importance. Increased false positives are particularly important in a screen-and-treat setting, since over-treatment and resulting impairment of fertility is more likely.

VIA can offer significant advantages over Pap in low-resource settings, particularly in terms of increased screening coverage, improved follow-up care and overall program quality. Due to the need for fewer specialized personnel and less infrastructure, training, and equipment, with VIA public health systems can offer cervical cancer screening in more remote (and less equipped) health care settings and can achieve higher coverage. Furthermore, providers can share the results of VIA with patients immediately, making it possible to screen and treat women during the same visit. This helps ensure that follow-up care can be provided on the spot and reduces the number of women who may miss out on treatment because they are not able to return to the clinic at another time. In a "screen and treat" project in Peru, for example, only 9% of women who screened positive failed to receive treatment in the single-visit approach, compared with 44% of women who were lost to treatment using a multi-visit model.

VIA has successfully been paired with cryotherapy, a relatively simple and inexpensive method of treating cervical lesions that can be performed by primary care physicians and mid-level providers.