Eliminating Cervical Cancer is a Global Health Equity Challenge
Inside View 01/04/2026 • Caroline Bwanali-Mussa, Haileyesus Getahun, Antje Leenderste & Leslie
Extracts below and a comment from me. Full text:
https://healthpolicy-watch.news/eliminating-cervical-cancer-is-a-global-...
Cervical cancer should no longer be killing women. It is one of the few cancers that we already know how to prevent, detect early, and treat effectively.
Yet it remains the fourth most common cancer among women worldwide, causing around 600,000 new cases and 340,000 deaths each year.
The tragedy is not just the scale of the disease—it is the inequality behind it. Women in lower-income countries are three times more likely to develop cervical cancer and six times more likely to die from it than those in wealthy countries...
The World Health Organization (WHO) has given us a roadmap with clear goals. What we lack is not science or plans, but global resolve...
The path is clear
In 2020, WHO member states adopted a global strategy to eliminate cervical cancer, setting clear milestones known as the 90-70-90 targets for 2030:
90% of girls vaccinated against HPV by age 15
70% of women screened by age 35 and again by 45
90% of women with cervical disease treated...
Countries do not need complex new technologies to make significant progress. The basic strategy is straightforward, using proven approaches that:
1. Educate and mobilize the public: Awareness about HPV, vaccination, and screening remains uneven. Communities must understand that cervical cancer is preventable.
2. Expand innovative screening: HPV tests—including molecular assays on self-collected vaginal or urine samples—can detect high-risk HPV early, well before cancer develops.
3. Vaccinate girls—and boys too: HPV vaccination is one of the most powerful cancer-prevention tools ever developed, offering protection not just against cervical cancer, but anal, penile and throat cancers, as well.
4. Ensure treatment is available: Women who develop cervical disease must have access to surgery, medicines, and radiotherapy. Pre-cancerous lesions detected early can often be treated through simple procedures in primary care settings.
The equity gap
The greatest obstacle is not knowledge – it is inequality. More than 90% of cervical cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Many governments cannot fully afford large-scale vaccination programs or nationwide screening. This is why cervical cancer elimination must become a financing priority...
COMMENT (NPW): "The greatest obstacle is not knowledge". Let's unpack that statement. This statement is only defensible if we define 'knowledge' as 'the cumulative evidence on what works, generated by robust research'. If instead we define knowledge as the individual knowledges of the general public, health workers or policymakers, then we quickly recognise that knowledge is indeed a huge obstacle. Indeed the 'greatest obstacle' is not what is known and articulated in WHO guidelines, but the fact that this knowledge is not translated into policy and practice.
The debate needs to shift towards a focus on knowledge translation and how to strengthen the global evidence ecosystem. This is why HIFA was launched in 2006 to address three intrinsic weaknesses in the system: communication, uniderstanding and advocacy. To address the latter weakness, we have encouraged more than 400 organisations to officially endorse unversal access and we are now urging the World Health Organzation to explicitly champion universal access to reliable healthcare information and convene stakeholders to develop a global strategy for its realisation. Our recent global consultation noted that this would be a game-changer. WHO has requested HIFA to develop a technical brief this year to help inform them on next steps. We are currently seeking £12,000 to fund this activity. If you or your organisation can help, please contact us: neil@hifa.org
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org