“In Mississippi, systemic failures mean Black women with cervical cancer are more likely to die”

The 19th News: “Systemic failures have led Black women in the Mississippi Delta to have disproportionately high death rates from cervical cancer, a new report concludes.

The Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative for Economic & Social Justice and Human Rights Watch collaborated on the report. It is the result of publicly available information, and interviews with 49 experts and 159 Black women from Bolivar, Washington and Humphreys counties.

Oleta Fitzgerald, the initiative’s co-founder and regional administrator, explained the significance of the issue. “It is a cancer that is preventable and highly treatable if people have access to the right kind of medical professionals and screenings and the HPV vaccination,” she said. “It is also a cancer that is rampant and particularly and indiscriminately in Black women in the rural areas where we work, and there is something we can do about it.””