World marks the cervical cancer awareness month, a global healthcare event observed for the entire month of January every year.
The Cervical Health Awareness Month Theme for 2024 is “Learn. Prevent. Screen”. The theme highlights the necessity of educating people with knowledge about minimizing cervical cancer risks and the life-saving importance of regular screenings.
Although cervical cancer is one of the most preventable and treatable types of cancer, it has a heavy impact on women worldwide.
As per the World Health Organization (WHO), the global incidence of cervical cancer in 2020 was estimated to be 604,000 new cases and 342,000 deaths, marking it as the fourth most prominent cancer in women. India accounts for an incidence (new cases) of nearly one-fourth of global cases of cervical cancer every year, with a mortality rate of nearly one-third.
Cervical Cancer Awareness Month is an important opportunity to share evidence-based information, promote vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) and screening, and emphasize the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative.
In support of this initiative, scientists from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) will share news about their cervical cancer research on social media throughout January.
Solution
The World Health Organization’s global strategy to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem includes a roadmap that all countries must reach and maintain an incidence rate of fewer than 4 new cases of cervical cancer per 100,000 women per year. Achieving that goal rests on three key pillars and their corresponding targets:
- Vaccination: 90 percent of girls fully vaccinated with the HPV vaccine by the age of 15 years (its recommended that boys be vaccinated as well)
- Screening: 70 percent of women screened using a high-performance test by the age of 35 years, and again by the age of 45 years
- Treatment: 90 percent of women with precancer treated and 90 percent of women with invasive cancer managed.
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