Doctor Fights Cervical Cancer in Developing Countries

Kay Taylor's nonprofit screens women for HPV

September 20, 2011

Women in Kapenguria, Kenya, wait to be screened during a 'Prevention International: No Cervical Cancer' training campaign.

Cervical cancer is the second deadliest cancer - after breast cancer - among women in developing countries. Eight hundred women die of cervical cancer every day, nearly 300,000 each year worldwide.

California gynecologist Kay Taylor is out to change those numbers. She's already saved thousands of women in Latin America, Africa and India

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Six years ago, Taylor gave up a successful medical practice in the San Francisco Bay Area to start the non-profit organization Prevention International: No Cervical Cancer. PINCC, pronounced “pink,” operates out of Taylor’s house in Oakland, California.

The bedrooms have been converted to office space and her living room is overflowing with medical supplies and equipment.

Dr. Kay Taylor gave up a successful California medical practice to fight against cervical cancer in developing countries.

Screening women

Taylor is getting ready for her next visit to Africa, where she and a medical team will visit rural villages in Uganda and Kenya to screen hundreds of women for the human papilloma virus. HPV, the most common sexually transmitted disease, has been linked to the development of cervical cancer.