WHO targets world free of cervical cancer

The World Health Organization (WHO) has mainly made the headlines this year in relation to the coronavirus, but its other priorities remain, as evidenced by the launch of the Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer on Tuesday.

This strategy outlines three key steps for the battle against what is the fourth most common cancer among women globally, and one which is a preventable disease and curable if detected early and adequately treated.

The steps are vaccination, screening and treatment. The WHO claims that successful implementation of all three could reduce more than 40% of new cases of the disease and five million related deaths by 2050.