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The first ever global forum towards combating cervical cancer saw donors pledging nearly $600 million in funding on March 5, 2024. The funding includes $400 million from the World Bank over three years, $180 million from American Charitable organisation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and $10 million from United Nations children’s agency UNICEF. The funds will be utilised to enhance global access to vaccination, screening and treatment for cervical cancer.
The Global Cervical Cancer Elimination Forum is taking place in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia from March 5-7, 2024. The Forum aims to mobilise governments, donors, civil society, and various stakeholders to pledge their commitment to the elimination of cervical cancer and energise the global community.
A woman succumbs to cervical cancer every two minutes globally, despite the existence of knowledge and tools for prevention and potential elimination of the disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Immunisation against human papillomavirus or HPV, the primary cause of cervical cancer, has the potential to prevent the majority of cases. When coupled with screening and treatment, it offers a pathway towards complete elimination.
Ranked as the fourth most prevalent cancer among women globally, cervical cancer consistently exerts a disproportionate impact on women and their families, particularly in low and middle-income countries.
In a statement, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said:
We have the knowledge and the tools to make cervical cancer history, but vaccination, screening and treatment programmes are still not reaching the scale required. This first global forum is an important opportunity for governments and partners to invest in the global elimination strategy and addressing the inequities that deny women and girls access to the life-saving tools they need.
In 2022, the WHO sanctioned the transition of countries from a two or three-dose vaccination approach against HPV to a one-dose strategy to broaden the protection for more girls. This significantly reduced barriers to scaling up vaccination programmes globally.
At the forum, several countries made commitments to combating cervical cancer, including a re-commitment by Indonesia to its National Action Plan 2023. The Democratic Republic of Congo commits to introducing the single-dose HPV vaccine for girls 9 to 14, aiming for cervical cancer elimination.
Ethiopia pledged a robust vaccine delivery strategy with 95 per cent coverage for 14-year-old girls in 2024, alongside annual screening and treatment for cervical cancer and Nigeria launched its HPV vaccine programme, adopting a single-dose schedule, aiming for at least 80 per cent coverage through targeted strategies for both in-school and out-of-school girls by 2026.