Survivor Fever

Survivor Fever. Yes, I made up the name; it seemed to fit.

What am I talking about?

Well, it's a phenomenon that happens all to often in screening. 

Let's say that you go for a screening test, and you get back a negative result. You're happy, relieved, and want others to also be screened, to know that they're also "safe".

Then there are those that receive a positive result. Abnormal cells, we'd better act now. So they get their abnormal cells treated, which probably wasn't necessary (see previous posts), but now they feel that they had a lucky escape; evaded cancer. And so they become vehement advocates for screening; "It could save your life! It saved mine!".

The reality is that screening, whilst it can detect a proportion of cancer, or precancerous conditions, falsely diagnoses a magnitude more, and that, in itself, leads to a large population of people believing that screening is "important".

These people, due to the failings of both government, and charities, are not fully informed of the risks, benefits, and harms of screening. In fact, some of the loudest proponents of screening are those that have been harmed. People with minor, harmless, changes to their cells, that are treated needlessly, who end up thinking that they have been saved from cancer.

We all need to educate ourselves, read the numbers, make an informed decision, and not follow blindly like lemmings off a cliff.