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“Eliminating any cancer would once have seemed like an impossible dream, but now we have the cost-effective, evidence-based tools to make that dream come true,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
The strategy, endorsed by WHO Member States at the World Health Assembly last week, involves vaccinating 90 percent of girls at the age of 15, testing 70 percent of women at the age of 15. 35 and again at 45, and treat 90 percent. of women identified with cervical disease.
“This is a great milestone in global health, because for the first time the world has agreed to eliminate the only cancer that we can prevent with a vaccine and the only cancer that is curable if detected early”, Dr. Princess, Deputy Director General of WHO Nothemba Simelela said at a press conference.
“We have the opportunity, as a global health community, to end suffering from this cancer.”
In the latest figures, as of 2018, 570,000 women contracted cervical cancer and 311,000 died. If no steps are taken to stop it, the number of annual cases is projected to reach 700,000, with 400,000 associated deaths, by 2030.
Fighting the disease is expected to pay huge economic dividends due to the improved prospects for women’s participation in the workforce, with $ 3.20 returned to the economy for every dollar invested, or $ 26 once the costs are accounted for. benefits for families, communities and societies.
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women globally. Mortality rates are three times higher in low- and middle-income countries than in high-income countries.
“There are already three vaccines available to combat HPV and several more in the works, but currently their availability is skewed towards the richest countries, and the world needs to come together to help the poorest countries have access to vaccines,” said the Dr. Simelela.
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