Screening Policies and Prevention to Optimize Women’s Health

Screening in medicine is the utilization of different tests and diagnostic modalities, aiming to diagnose or predict illnesses before them actually happen or are still in the asymptomatic stage. Once an individual shows a possible occurrence of a disease, preventive and treatment options can be offered to prevent disease occurrence or minimise the risks and complications of the disease. For an effective screening, the screening programs must comply with the WHO criteria for a good effective screening policy. Screening for cervical cancer, hepatitis B and HIV viral infections are few of too many examples of how may screening help to improve and optimize women's health. The different types of screening policies include universal screening, selective high-risk population screening, opportunistic screening, and multimodal screening. All screening programmes must be aware of the possible limitations and disadvantages of any screening programme. Screening may improve or save lives.