Consolidating Efforts, Unifying Visions

Till this day, Cervical Cancer poses a threat to the health and lives of women across the Eastern Mediterranean Region and the world at large.  This is due to a lack of awareness, coupled with scarce access to healthcare services, cultural constraints, and a weakened healthcare infrastructure. Such issues persist despite the availability of both means to prevent the spread of the disease and practices that could be adopted. Such means include the availability of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.

If diagnosed at an early stage, cervical cancer is curable. Therefore, it is imperative that periodic screenings are carried out so that it is detected at an early stage. The vaccine could be another form of prevention, thus making this form of cancer the only one that could be eliminated.  

Until the year 2022, cervical cancer was considered the fourth most widely spread form of cancer globally, where the number of newly diagnosed cases was 660 thousand, and the number of fatalities reached 350 thousand. Statistics also show that one in five children was losing his/her mom to the disease.

The good news is that there was a 50% drop in the rates of Cervical Cancer cases between the 1970s and the early 2000s. This decline is due to the normalization of early detection. Within this same time period the number of women diagnosed with Cervical Cancer fell by 11% annually, especially within the 20 to  24 age-bracket. These figures could be attributed to the availability of the HPV vaccine, causing the numbers to stabilize by the year 2012. Such outcomes are a clear indication that early detection and vaccination are the means to prevent and even eliminate the spread of the disease, serving as a way forward for creating healthier lives for an entire generation, and for saving lives in both the region and the world at large. 

In the year 2020 the World Health Organization’s (WHO) member states endorsed the  Global Strategy for the Elimination of Cervical Cancer “A Public Health Problem’ provides a roadmap based on the 90-70-90 targets to be achieved by the year the year  2030, stipulating that 90% of girls below the age of 15 are to be fully vaccinated with the HPV vaccine., 70% of women are to be screened using high-performance tests when they are between the ages of 35 and 40, while 90% of the women diagnosed with Cervical Cancer  are to be  treated. To achieve these goals, Civil Society, healthcare, and other related organizations were united by the shared commitment to eliminate the disease.  

EMPHNET’s strategic outlook is consistent with global efforts aimed at accelerating the elimination of cervical cancer, as the organization is committed to making knowledge related to the region’s public health policies and practices available, whereby the elimination of Cervical Cancer holds a coveted spot on its agenda, as Cervical Cancer is the sixth most common type of cancer affecting women in the region.

In keeping with its vision to achieve better health and wellbeing for the people of the Eastern Mediterranean Region and beyond, EMPHNET organized related coordination meetings alongside other stakeholders including health professionals from the private sector, experts from academia, specialists from NGOs, the media, and organizations working towards the empowerment of women, as well as health influencers and thought leaders. It also held a webinar geared towards raising awareness on the issue, in which it hosted a panel of subject matter experts.  It complimented these efforts with a social media, and Media campaign in which it targeted women in Jordan, and it also conducted a series of media sessions aimed at empowering the media to do their part towards spreading knowledge.  Such initiatives contributed to raising awareness amongst different facets of the community.

But, despite these achievements, EMPHNET still remains non-complacent. It is still committed to supporting global efforts to eliminate Cervical Cancer and to do its part to realize global health agendas. It still strives to contribute to measurable and timely outcomes by making vaccines and screenings available for all. Today, EMPHNET affirms that it is the right of each woman and girl to have access to healthcare regardless of where she is in the world. It confirms that it is the role of healthcare professionals to be the conscious citizens of the world and to do their part in the shaping of human history , by ensuring that Cervical Cancer is the first type of cancer to be eliminated completely.

Let us work together to save lives!