FDA approves HPV self-test kit

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a kit that will allow women to collect their own vaginal sample for HPV screening

Women will be able to swab themselves in privacy at a doctor's office, clinic or pharmacy, and the sample will then be sent off for analysis.

Each year, about 11,500 U.S. women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and about 4,000 women die from it,

More than half of U.S. women diagnosed with cervical cancer have never been screened or screened only infrequently for the virus,

HPV is the known cause of more than 95% of cervical cancers, Roche added.

"Roche's self-collection solution can help reduce these barriers by offering an alternative to clinician collection procedures,

The HPV test itself is already covered by private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, Roche told the Washington Post.

The ACS recommends that cervical cancer screening begin at age 25, and that women ages 25 to 65 have an HPV test every five years.

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