CERVICAL CANCER

Saving women’s lives with screening and treatment for cervical cancer

Cervical cancer is a preventable disease that kills more than 300,000 women a year. Most deaths are in poorer countries where screening and treatment are scarce.

Unitaid is leading the way in a global effort to eliminate the disease by creating access to a one-stop solution offering affordable, quality screening and treatment services.

Scaling-up this intervention could cut cervical cancer deaths by 30 percent in low- and middle-income countries in 10 years.

Cervical cancer is caused by human papilloma virus (HPV), a common sexually transmitted infection. HPV infections may result in precancerous lesions that can develop into cancer if not caught early.

Two Unitaid initiatives are developing portable tools for testing and removal of precancerous lesions, that can work in rural clinics. A technique called thermal ablation uses a heated probe to destroy precancerous cells.

The cost of screening and treating has been cut from US$20 in 2018 to $11, with the aim of reducing this further to a US$1 screen-and-treat package.

There are 270,000 preventable deaths from cervical cancer each year worldwide

Unitaid is working to change this reality by expanding access to simple, affordable and highly effective screening and preventive approaches”

Nearly 90% of women who die from cervical cancer

have poor access to prevention, screening and treatment.

Women in low- and middle-income countries

are six times more likely to develop cervical cancer than women in high-income countries