Local, State Policies May Contribute To Higher Cervical Cancer Death Rate For Hispanic Women In Tarrant County

Arlington TX

23 November, 2021

8:40 PM

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By Alexis Allison, Fort Worth Report November 22, 2021 Alma Zuniga kept her cancer a secret for as long as she could. She hid the evidence under wigs and makeup, and with eyebrow pencils she'd use to draw on facial hair every morning before work. "When people start talking about cancer, they're going to say, 'Well, what kind of cancer do you have?'" she said. Her answer — that she'd been diagnosed with human papillomavirus, and the HPV had turned to cervical cancer — felt too intimate to share. When she received her late-stage diagnosis in 2013, Zuniga was in her late 40s. She remembers her oncologist in Fort Worth saying her uterus was "very, very angry." When she looks back, Zuniga blames her ignorance. Back then, she didn't know much about cervical cancer, a disease that disproportionately affects Hispanic women in Tarrant County, Texas and the country. To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.