CERVICAL cancer is preventable and curable as long as it is detected early and managed effectively. Yet it is the fourth most common form of cancer among women worldwide, with the disease claiming the lives of more than 300,000 women in 2018.

Few diseases reflect global inequities as much as cancer of the cervix. Nearly 90 per cent of the deaths in 2018 occurred in low- and middle-income countries. This is where the burden of cervical cancer is greatest, because access to public health services is limited and screening and treatment for the disease have not been widely implemented.

An ambitious, concerted, and inclusive strategy has been developed to guide the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem.

A global strategy

In May 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) director general announced a global call for action to eliminate cervical cancer, underscoring renewed political will to make elimination a reality and calling for all stakeholders to unite behind this common goal.

In August 2020 the World Health Assembly adopted the Global Strategy for Cervical Cancer Elimination.

Now is the time to act to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem.

Achieving elimination

To eliminate cervical cancer, all countries must reach and maintain an incidence rate of below four per 100,000 women. Achieving that goal rests on three key pillars and their corresponding targets: vaccination, 90 per cent of girls fully vaccinated with the HPV vaccine by the age of 15; screening, 70 per cent of women screened using a high-performance test by the age of 35 and again by the age of 45; treatment, 90 per cent of women with pre-cancer treated; and 90 per cent of women with invasive cancer managed.

Each country should meet the 90-70-90 targets by 2030 to get on the path to eliminate cervical cancer within the next century.