The third Cervical Cancer in Africa Conference held in Cape Town 20 to 21 July 2009, on behalf of governments and organisations, made a commitment to allocating funds in their budgets for national cervical cancer control programmes and to create mechanisms to increase access to affordable vaccines for poorer countries.
The conference was attended by delegates from 25 countries including Belgium, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tanzania, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The theme for the conference is "Improving cervical cancer prevention through vaccination, pre-cancer screening and treatment" to highlight the need to increase the availability and affordability of HPV vaccination and proven screening and treatment modalities in the developing world.
In addition to presentation of research papers and country reports, the African First Ladies Forum was unveiled to address breast and cervical cancer prevention. The forum will lobby African governments to focus on initiating effective preventive programmes right from the policy point of view to programme implementation, and do advocacy work and lobby manufacturers of these vaccines to reduce prices.
The burden in Africa of cervical cancer is unacceptably high estimated at 500 000 new cases and over 270 000 death annually and there is evidence that this is increasing. There are limited national cervical cancer prevention services with no widespread prioritisation of policy and programmes and an associated lack of national funding in the developing world.
"While there are promising discussions with vaccine manufacturers and other stakeholders to bring down the cost of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, there is still a problem of affordability - an obstacle to universal access by African populations. Uganda demonstrated during the conference a compelling evidence for the acceptability and feasibility of HPV vaccination in an African setting," said Deputy Minister of Health Dr Molefi Sefularo.
The conference committed itself to working together towards the introduction of HPV vaccines in the public health systems, with a vision to reduce the high burden of cervical cancer in Africa by 2015.
Enquiries:
Charity Bhengu
Cell: 079 087 2438
Issued by: Department of Health
21 July 2009
Source: Department of Health (http://www.doh.gov.za)
