Unitaid has committed $50 million through 2026 to help countries speed up efforts to eliminate cervical cancer by 2030, to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, with an immediate $18 million investment announced this week at the Global Forum on Cervical Cancer Elimination in Indonesia. The funding will support screening and early treatment programs across four continents, according to a press release.
Hundreds of millions of women remain at risk and need timely access to screening and treatment. While the Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination protects younger generations who have not been exposed to the virus, the disease remains one of the top causes of cancer death for women in low- and middle-income countries.
The World Health Organization has set 90-70-90 targets for elimination: 90 percent of girls vaccinated, 70 percent of women screened, and 90 percent of those needing treatment receiving it.
According to the press-release, Unitaid and its partners will support governments to expand access to cheaper HPV testing and portable treatment devices across Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean. The Clinton Health Access Initiative will work in Rwanda, South Africa, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The Pan American Health Organization will help scale up services and lower HPV test costs in Latin America and the Caribbean, while WHO‘s Regional Office will provide technical help to Lao, Mongolia, and Papua New Guinea.
“This is more than a financial commitment – it’s a strategic response to what countries have told us they need: cheaper diagnostics, decentralized treatment, and support for solutions designed and led at the national level,” said Marisol Touraine, Chair of Unitaid’s Executive Board.
The investment aims to address barriers including fragmented markets, uneven pricing and limited financing while supporting South-South collaboration. The goal is to make cervical cancer the first cancer ever eliminated globally.
In 2022, about 662,000 new cases of cervical cancer were diagnosed globally, with around 349,000 deaths from the disease, with 94% of deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. Despite being 100% preventable through HPV vaccination and screening, cervical cancer remains the fourth most common cancer in women globally.
