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Cervical cancer is a serious global health threat that kills more than 300,000 women each year. It’s a disease that disproportionately affects women in low- and middle-income countries in Equatorial Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, but it’s a preventable disease and decades of research produced the tools necessary to eliminate it.
Aware of this urgent public health problem, the editorial team of Preventive medecine, Led by Editor-in-Chief Dr Eduardo Franco, Director, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Chair of the Department of Oncology Gerald Bronfman at McGill University, publishes a special issue titled “From Science to Action and to impact: eliminate cervical cancer ”. describes the action plans needed to eliminate cervical cancer.
The journal’s publication coincides with International HPV Awareness Day on March 4 and is dedicated to the more than half a million women who are stricken with cervical cancer each year. Its publication follows the official launch last November of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) strategy to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer. The strategy defines the goals that all countries must achieve by 2030: 90% vaccination coverage against the human papillomavirus (HPV) to prevent infections causing cervical cancer, 70% coverage of the screening and 90% access to treatment for women identified as having cervical disease.
Dr Linda Niccolai and Dr. Anna Giuliano, two giants of cervical cancer prevention research, was the guest editor of the issue. Dr Niccolai, Professor of Epidemiology, Yale School of Public Health, Director of the Connecticut Emerging Infections Program and Fellow of the Yale Cancer Center, and Dr Giuliano, Director of the Center for Immunization and Infection Research in Cancer and Professor in the Department of Cancer Epidemiology at Moffitt Cancer Center, brought together an exceptional group of international scientists and practitioners who have contributed articles on basic science, clinical medicine, public health practice and mathematical modeling, all focused on the targeted action needed in each. from these areas to reach the uterus. elimination of cancer.
In their editorial, Drs. Niccolai and Giuliano stress that in addition to public health and clinical resources for research and health care, it is essential that government officials take a strong stand. “We have all the tools we need to eliminate cervical cancer: vaccination, screening and treatment, both for primary and secondary prevention,” says Dr Niccolai. “What we need now is the commitment of political, medical and public health leaders to make this happen.” A special issue of Preventive medecine describes how to rule out HPV-related cancers, starting with cervical cancer. Vaccine, screening and treatment are the three things that are needed simultaneously to be successful.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created both challenges and opportunities for global HPV testing and vaccination efforts. “The pandemic has taught us to be nimble and creative and to work for health promotion under the most difficult circumstances. It has forced us to rethink the way we provide health care, including preventive services, ”says Dr Niccolai. “He also demonstrated to the public the powerful potential of vaccines to protect our health.”
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