World marks cervical most cancers elimination day as international locations speed up motion

Today marks the primary World Cervical Cancer Elimination Day – mandated by the World Health Assembly – a historic milestone in international efforts to finish a preventable most cancers. This day of motion builds on highly effective momentum, with international locations and companions uniting to launch bold vaccination campaigns, develop screening and remedy companies, and speed up progress towards eliminating cervical most cancers as a public well being drawback.

The annual commemoration highlights a vital alternative: cervical most cancers – the fourth commonest most cancers in girls – claims over 350 000 lives every year, but it’s a illness that we’ve the instruments to eradicate.

The Day helps the core pillars of the WHO’s international elimination technique: vaccinating 90% of ladies in opposition to human papillomavirus (HPV), screening 70% of ladies, and treating 90% of these with pre-cancer and invasive most cancers. It serves as a vital platform to strengthen advocacy, speed up service supply, and mobilize sources to make sure each girl and lady has entry to life-saving care.

“In 2018, I was proud to launch the global call to action on cervical cancer elimination, and I’m even prouder now to see what was once a distant dream becoming a reality,” mentioned Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “More and more countries are scaling up HPV vaccination, improving screening, and expanding treatment, bringing us closer to a future free of cervical cancer.”

This momentum is underscored by the announcement from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and its companions, who estimate that the bold objective to achieve 86 million ladies by the top of 2025 has been met, reflecting a broader wave of nation motion to advance nationwide elimination plans and develop entry to screening and remedy.

Countries are marking World Cervical Cancer Elimination Day with a wave of actions on a number of fronts. Vaccination is scaling up via campaigns in Sierra Leone and Liberia concentrating on over 1.5 million ladies. Screening efforts are additionally intensifying, with Sierra Leone planning a mass marketing campaign throughout all 16 districts, adopted by an consciousness stroll. Meanwhile, in Malaysia, advocacy is taking heart stage as survivors lead a week-long promotion of self-sampling HPV testing, a key innovation for increasing screening entry.

This previous yr has seen important country-level motion, offering a strong basis for the brand new annual commemoration.

• Angola: Launched an HPV vaccination marketing campaign in October for ladies aged 9–12 years.
• China: Added HPV vaccine into its nationwide immunization programme, scaling up vaccination to all 13-year-old ladies.
• Cuba: Launched HPV vaccination in October 2025 for all ladies in Grade 4.
• Ghana: Held a nationwide vaccination marketing campaign in October 2025 for ladies aged 9–14 years, aiming to achieve 2.4 million ladies.
• Indonesia: Hosted the Second Global Forum for Cervical Cancer Elimination and reaffirmed its dedication to eliminating cervical most cancers by 2030 via daring nationwide targets (90-75-90), a powerful partnership ecosystem, and substantial investments in vaccination, screening, and remedy underneath its National Cervical Cancer Elimination Plan 2023–2030.
• Nepal: Ran a nationwide HPV vaccination marketing campaign concentrating on ladies aged 10–14 years in February 2025, to mark the introduction of the HPV vaccine within the nationwide immunization schedule.
• Nigeria: Launched a nationwide cervical most cancers elimination effort, with the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu committing US$ 700 000 via the ‘Renewed Hope Initiative’. The funding additional affirms Nigeria’s management and help for WHO’s elimination targets, mirrored additionally in its co-leadership of the decision establishing World Cervical Cancer Elimination Day.
• Pakistan: Launched the nationwide HPV vaccine introduction via a marketing campaign concentrating on ladies aged 9–14, reaching over 9 million ladies in what’s to this point the most important single HPV marketing campaign any nation has each carried out.
• Rwanda: Through Mission 2027, its Accelerated Plan for Elimination, the nation is quickly increasing nationwide screening and remedy companies to fulfill the 90-70-90 targets by 2027, three years forward of the worldwide objective.
• Spain: Through the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Spain’s three-year funding is supporting the WHO Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative to strengthen entry to HPV vaccination, screening, and remedy in international locations of the WHO African and Eastern Mediterranean Regions.
• South Africa: Placed cervical most cancers elimination on the worldwide stage as a part of its G20 well being agenda, reaffirming the nation’s steadfast help for the WHO Global Strategy. The nation additionally co-led the decision establishing World Cervical Cancer Elimination Day and is finalizing its National Strategic Framework for Cervical Cancer Elimination, to be launched later this yr.
• Tajikistan: Launched HPV vaccination for all ladies aged 10–14 years in its routine immunization schedule from October 2025.
• Tunisia: Introduced the HPV vaccine into its routine immunization programme for 12-year-old ladies in April 2025.
• Across WHO Western Pacific Region, Unitaid and WHO have expanded their partnership to strengthen cervical most cancers prevention and remedy programmes, supporting equitable entry to screening and remedy companies for precancer.

Countries worldwide are accelerating efforts to develop entry to HPV vaccination, screening, and remedy, advancing towards the 90-70-90 targets of the Global Strategy.
 

Editor’s notice

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and its companions, estimate that the bold objective to achieve 86 million ladies by the top of 2025 has been met. The variety of ladies to be verified primarily based on the official WHO/UNICEF HPV vaccine protection estimates will likely be launched in July 2026.