Publications

Vaccinating young girls against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) before sexual debut and screening women for cervical cancer have been identified as priority interventions to reduce the burden of cervical cancer. Awareness strategies for these interventions have existed for some years, and many countries are in various stages of developing and implementing programmes to vaccinate, screen for and treat cervical cancer. This is the first comprehensive overview to assess country capacity and preparedness to introduce or scale up comprehensive cervical cancer prevention and control programmes in sub-Saharan Africa. The policies, resources and systems reported here build on the growing body of literature about practical aspects of cervical cancer prevention and control by documenting existing programmes and their core characteristics. As such, it makes an essential contribution to the understanding of the several components that are important in effective cervical cancer prevention and control programming.