NY-State Senator Jeff Klein (D-Bronx/Westchester) today encouraged every woman to take advantage of Pap smear screening which tests for cancer of the cervix. January is Cervical Cancer Screening Month.

By age 50, at least 80 percent of American women will have acquired a strain of the HPV virus. Since the virus typically doesn’t present symptoms women are often unaware that they are infected. In some cases the body's immune system clears the infection but certain types of HPV can lead to cervical cancer.