Cervical cancer has been declared eradicated in Australia, which puts it ahead of the pack in the race to eliminate the disease.
If current vaccination and screening rates hold, the country will be free of the disease by 2035, according to researchers. According to a new prediction based on current data, by 2022 it will be categorized as a ‘rare cancer’.
Professor Karen Canfell, director of research at Cancer Council NSW, who led the study, said, “This is exciting news for women across Australia”. It has been a long time since we’ve been at the forefront of cervical cancer control, and we’ll be passing on our knowledge and methods to the rest of the world,’ she said.
Cervical cancer has yet to be eliminated by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) chiefs. Researchers led by Michaela Hall, on the other hand, believe that eradicating four cases per 100,000 people may be a realistic goal. By 2035, according to a group of scientists who published their findings in The Lancet Public Health, cancer rates will fall below this threshold. They predicted that by 2022, the mortality rate would be less than six per 100,000. At this point, the rate stands at seven per 100,000 people.
‘Cervical cancer could be eliminated as a public health problem in Australia within the next 20 years,’ the researchers wrote in the journal.
However, in order to keep cervical cancer incidence and mortality at their current low levels, screening and vaccination programs must be maintained in the future.
The incidence rate in the United Kingdom is slightly higher, with an estimated 9.5 cases per 100,000 women. Additionally, a charity in the United Kingdom claims that elimination is “firmly on the horizon.” However, Scotland’s rate of 13.7 cases per 100,000 women is significantly higher than that of the other home nations, which all fall around the 9 cases per 100,000 women mark. It’s estimated to be around 7.5 percent in the United States.
For every 100,000 people in Swaziland, 75 people will be diagnosed with cervical cancer each year, according to the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF). In 2007, Australia became one of the first countries to offer an HPV vaccination program to females as part of the national immunization program. Nearly all cases of cervical cancer are caused by persistent infections of high-risk HPV, which causes changes to cervical cells. Australia’s Pap test for women between 16 and 89 years old was replaced last year with new HPV cervical screening. Cervical cancer diagnoses and mortality are expected to drop by around 20% with the new HPV test offered to people aged 25-74.
The World Health Organization recently discussed the fight against cervical cancer, according to Professor Canfell (WHO). Its president Silvia de Sanjose said Australia is leading the way in HPV research with its innovative vaccines and large-scale vaccination campaigns. ‘Indigenous communities and those in low and middle-income countries,’ according to Ms. de Sanjose, will be given special consideration, she said.
Women should continue participating in the National Cervical Screening Program, and girls and boys should be immunized against HPV as part of the national HPV immunization program, according to Professor Canfell’s recommendations. Cervical cancer prevention is constantly evolving, according to Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust chief executive Robert Music. ‘Australia has been ahead of the UK in adopting many of these advancements, which means they are well and truly on the path to eliminating cervical cancer.
New technologies, such as HPV primary screening, cervical self-sampling, and vaccinations for boys for HPV, should be implemented as soon as possible,’ says Dr. Sullivan.
According to the findings of our research, the UK will be free of measles by the year 2040, when the vaccinated population will have virtually vanished. Preventative vaccination and screening programs must not be lost sight of, especially among unvaccinated women, whose incidence is expected to rise. ‘Elimination will be further away if they keep falling.’
