TruScreen Announces HIV African Initiative

27 August 2018
NZX Announcement

TruScreen Announces HIV African Initiative

• Collaboration with the National Aids Council (NAC) of Zimbabwe
• Pilot HIV screening programme in Zimbabwe
• 720,000 HIV affected women in Zimbabwe
• 13 million HIV affected women in Africa
• Minimal existing cervical cancer screening infrastructure
• Women suffering from HIV at increased risk of cervical cancer
Cervical cancer technology company, TruScreen Limited (NZAX:TRU), announces its African HIV
initiative which includes deliberations with senior African health officials regarding the screening of
women generally and the specific need for screening HIV affected women. TruScreen is in advanced
discussions with the National Aids Council (NAC) of Zimbabwe for the use of TruScreen as the
preferred screening method for cervical cancer of HIV affected women.
The role of the NAC is to coordinate and facilitate the response in Zimbabwe to HIV and AIDS. The
NAC proposes to incorporate cervical cancer, as an HIV co-infection, into its national health response
and has made a deliberate effort to involve TruScreen. The NAC, together with The Minister of
Health and Child Care (MOHCC), are set to launch cancer awareness programmes including cancer
training, screening and management programmes to accelerate the fight against ‘AIDS defining
cancers’. The NAC proposes to place a TruScreen device into every primary care centre in Zimbabwe
and to prioritize the cervical cancer screening of women in the rural environments.
Cervical cancer is the number one cause of cancer-related deaths in women in eastern Africa, and
women with HIV are six times more likely to develop cervical cancer. Having HIV nearly doubles the
risk of dying from cervical cancer and Zimbabwe has the fifth highest cervical cancer rate in the
world where almost 95% of cervical cancer patients are diagnosed at late or end stage of the
disease. In addition, Zimbabwe has the sixth highest rate of HIV globally with an estimated 720,000
women living with HIV.
Zimbabwe is a pilot in Africa to access the screening for cervical cancer through access to ‘AIDS-
defining cancers’ throughout Africa and it is expected that TruScreen will extend this strategy to the
rest of Africa where there are 227 million women of screening age and 13 million women suffering
from HIV.
Chairman of TruScreen, Mr Robert Hunter, said: “African countries represent a major untapped
market opportunity for the company, as many have little or no laboratory infrastructure or existing
screening programmes or methods. TruScreen is a portable real time device that does not need

laboratory infrastructure and is perfectly suited to Zimbabwe’s desire to introduce screening to HIV
affected women and to the African continent as a whole.”
ENDS
For more information visit www.truscreen.com or contact:
Martin Dillon
TruScreen Chief Executive Officer
Email: martindillon@truscreen.com
Media Liaison
Jackie Ellis
Email: jackie@ellisandco.co.nz
Phone: +64 27 246 2505


About TruScreen:
TruScreen’s real time cervical cancer
technology utilises a digital wand which is
placed on the surface of the cervix to measure
electrical and optical signals from the
surrounding tissue. A sophisticated proprietary
algorithm framework distinguishes between
normal and abnormal (cancerous and
precancerous) tissue to identify precancerous
change, or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia
(CIN). A Single Use Sensor (SUS) is used for
each patient to protect against cross-infection.