A Global Strategy for elimination of cervical cancer
Following the call from the WHO Director General in 2018, a Draft Strategy for the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem will be put for the World Health Assembly’s approval in May 2020. The Draft Global Strategy outlines the
following threshold: we will have eliminated cervical cancer as a public health problem when all countries reach an incidence rate of less than 4 cases per 100 000 women. This should happen within the lifetime of today’s young girls.
The Draft Global Strategy has three main pillars: prevent, screen and treat, that capture a comprehensive approach that includes prevention, effective screening and treatment of pre-cancerous lesions, early cancer diagnosis and programmes
for the management of invasive cancer.
To reach elimination, efforts must be aligned and accelerated. Every country must reach the following global targets by 2030:
- 90% coverage of HPV Vaccination of girls (by 15 years of age);
- 70% coverage of screening (70% of women are screened with high-performance tests by the ages of 35 and 45 years) and 90% treatment of precancerous lesions;
- Management of 90% of invasive cancer cases.
