Cervical Cancer Virtual Press conference transcript - 17 November 2021
Overview
00:00:43
CD Hello,
everyone, and welcome to this World Health Organization virtual press
conference on November 17, 2021. My
name is Carla Drysdale and I’m a Communications Officer at WHO, headquartered
in Geneva. Today’s press conference and special event will commemorate a
landmark Day of Action for cervical cancer elimination and welcome
groundbreaking new initiatives to end this devastating disease.
At the end of the first hour we will have a
media Q&A and will invite media to stay, if they wish to, for the second
hour, which will showcase activities around the globe on elimination efforts
for cervical cancer. Among the speakers joining Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,
WHO’s Director-General, are four first ladies from Rwanda, South Africa,
Botswana and Burkina Faso, the Ambassador of Australia, Her Excellency Sally Mansfield,
Dr Princess Nothemba Nono Simelela, Assistant Director-General, Special Advisor
to the Director-General, Strategic Priorities.
Speakers also include several cervical cancer
advocates, including Zambian media personality and cervical cancer survivor, Karen
Nakawala. You will also hear from the family of Henrietta Lacks. You will hear
inspiring singing from the Sea of Change Cancer Survivors Choir in Ireland. Our
speakers also include representatives from WHO partners, including Unitaid,
FIND, the French government’s L'Initiative facility, as well as from the University
of Miami collaborating centre.
We are thrilled to have Grammy Award winner,
singer-songwriter and the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Angélique Kidjo. An
exciting and packed line-up today. Just to note that today’s presser will focus
on cervical cancer elimination efforts, so if journalists have specific
COVID-19-related questions, please join our regular COVID-19 presser which will
take place next week. An updated media advisory will be sent with the date and
connection details for that. You can also write to us at mediainquiries@who.int.
With that introduction, I will now hand over to Dr Tedros. Dr Tedros, you have
the floor.
00:03:16
TAG Thank
you. Thank you, Carla. Your Excellency Jeannette Kagame, First Lady of the
Republic of Rwanda, Your Excellency Dr Tshepo Ramaphosa, First Lady of the
Republic of South Africa, Your Excellency, Ambassador Sally Mansfield, Ms Karen
Nakawala, dear partners, colleagues and friends. Good morning, good afternoon
and good evening and thank you all for joining us for this special occasion.
Last month, I had the honour of meeting the
family of Henrietta Lacks. For those who don’t know her story, Henrietta Lacks
was a Black woman who attended a hospital in Baltimore in 1951 complaining of
vaginal bleeding, a common symptom of cervical cancer.
Without her knowledge or consent, doctors took a
biopsy of the tumour and sent it off for analysis. Those cells turned out to
have a unique ability to survive and reproduce and became the basis for
research that has saved millions of lives, including vaccines against human papillomavirus
or HPV, that pathogen responsible for 99% of cervical cancers.
Nobel Prize have been won, fortunes made and
millions of lives saved from Henrietta Lacks cells but the injustice that was
perpetrated on her persists for millions of other disadvantaged women around
the world who lack access to the tools that were developed from her cells.
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer
among women globally but it is also almost completely preventable and if
diagnosed early enough, is one of the most successfully treatable cancers.
00:05:18
This disease claims the lives of 300,000 women
each year, one every two minutes. Like COVID-19, we have the tools to prevent,
detect and treat this disease but like COVID-19 cervical cancer is driven by
inequitable access to those tools. 79 countries that account for two thirds of
the global burden of cervical cancer are yet to introduce HPV vaccines because
of high and inadequate supply. In low and middle income countries, the
incidence of cervical cancer is nearly twice is high and the death rate is
three times as high as in high income countries.
We see similar disparities among marginalised
populations within many high-income countries. That’s why one year ago today,
WHO launched a global strategy to eliminate cervical cancer with three
That’s why one year ago today, WHO launched a Global
Strategy to Eliminate Cervical Cancer, with three targets to achieve within the
next 10 year, to vaccinate 90% of all girls against human papillomavirus by the
age of 15, to expand access to screening services for 70% of women, and to
expand access to treatment for 90% of women with pre-cancerous lesions, and
palliative care for 90% of women with invasive cancer.
Like it has with so many diseases, the pandemic
has caused setbacks to progress towards these targets because of disruption to
health services. The proportion of girls globally with access to HPV vaccines
has fallen to 13%, from 15% before the pandemic. At the same time, there are
encouraging signs of progress.
00:07:24
In the past year, several more countries have
introduced the HPV vaccine into national immunization schedules, including
Cameroon, Cabo Verde, El Salvador, Mauritania, Qatar, Sao Tome and Principe,
and Tuvalu. WHO has also prequalified a fourth HPV vaccine called Cecolin,
produced by Innovax, which we expect will increase supply and decrease prices.
We have also seen innovations like
self-sampling, which offers women the option of being screened for cervical
cancer without a pelvic exam. Today, we are releasing WHO’s evidence generation
framework for artificial intelligence-based screening. But, we need to do much
more. Today, we are calling on all countries, all manufacturers of vaccines,
tests and treatments, all partners and all civil society organisations to join
us in our effort to make cervical cancer history.
Henrietta Lacks didn’t live to see the benefit
that her cells have been to so many women around the world. Cervical cancer
took her life just a few months after she was diagnosed. We owe it to her and
to all women who have died with cervical cancer or are living with it today to
make these life-saving tools available and affordable everywhere.
Today, we are honoured to be joined by four
first ladies from Africa, who have seen first-hand the impact that cervical
cancer has on women in their countries. First, it’s my great honour to welcome
Her Excellency Jeannette Kagame, the First Lady of the Republic of Rwanda.
Madam Kagame, thank you so much for joining us and you have the floor. Murakoze
chane, and you have the floor.
00:09:45
JK Thank
you, Dr Tedros. Excellency Sika Kaboré, Première Dame de la République du Burkina Faso, Excellency Tshepo
Ramaphosa, First Lady of the Republic of South Africa, Excellency Neo Masisi,
First Lady of the Republic of Botswana and, of course, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus,
Director General of the World Health Organization, excellencies, ambassadors, dear
engaged partners, dedicated activists, allies and friends, ladies and gentlemen,
good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Thank you, Dr Tedros, that we have
people following us from different time zones.
I am honoured to be here today, one year into
our commitment to implement a Global Strategy to accelerate the elimination of cervical
cancer as a public health problem. Fighting a crisis amidst another crisis is
no easy feat. I commend the WHO for not pushing women, particularly those from
the developing world, to the side, as it weathers the storm of the coronavirus
pandemic.
By placing concern for people of both genders,
and of all races and ages, at the heart of medicine, the WHO has made
commendable headway in devising a permanent solution, to the cervical cancer
emergency. Distinguished guests, we all know that early detection is by far the
most effective method of waning the fatality of cervical cancer. Mass
screenings are essential to our mission, therefore they should be considered an
extension, of the human right to the highest attainable standard of health,
conducive to living a life in dignity.
00:11:50
Since the introduction of cervical cancer
screenings in Rwanda in 2015, over 170,000 women have been examined. I am
confident that by this time next year, new partnerships will have helped to
raise this number further and will speak to the force of our momentum.
Valued partners, devoted activists, allies and
friends, as the conversation between nations shifts, to include vaccine
manufacturing and benevolent research, I hope that this spike in international
health consciousness, multiplies global resolutions, to make cervical cancer
prevention, accessible to all.
Rwanda has already surpassed the target set by
the WHO cervical cancer elimination strategy of having 90% of girls under 15
fully vaccinated for HPV. In fact, since 2011 our immunisation of young girls
aged 12 has consistently stood above 90%. However, research has emerged in
favour of also inoculating young boys against the virus in order to reduce
transmission rates.
Therefore, our developing nations need to be
equipped to double our efforts in the unrolling of vaccines. I join Dr Tedros
in inviting industries, the private sector, researchers and development
partners, to work with our governments, to reduce the price of HPV vaccines,
HPV DNA tests and the adoption of innovative technologies, such as the WHO’s AI
visual examination tools.
00:13:47
I hope for an African continent where these
vaccines are produced locally, with the support of our every ally who I believe
shares our vision of health autonomy for all nations. To our women stakeholders,
caring for your health, must not be a periodic trend. The testimonies of
survivors must be consistently amplified. We owe them the promise, that their
suffering is not the fate that we are allowing for the next generation of
women.
We owe the family of Henrietta Lacks the faith
that the research that we are indebted to her for will lead us to a world with
zero cervical cancer fatality. Ladies and gentlemen, a goal of such scale,
requires ambition from both genders. We know that this goal cannot be attained
with the burden fully resting on women. I again call on our male counterparts to
proactively join this fight. This is true allyship in action, sharing our
burden to alleviate the load of women, as they strive for change that will
benefit our entire societies. I thank you and to more years of commitment and
partnership.
TAG Thank
you. Thank you, Your Excellency. Thank you for your leadership. It’s now my
honour to introduce Dr Tshepo Ramaphosa, First Lady of the Republic of South
Africa. Dr Ramaphosa, thank you for joining us and you have the floor.
TR Thank
you, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health
Organization, Dr Nono Simelela, Assistant Director-General of the World Health
Organization, Her Excellency Mrs Jeanette Kagame, Her Excellency, Mrs Neo
Masisi, Her Excellency, Mrs Adjoavi Sika Kaboré,
Ambassador Sally Mansfield, Ms Karen Nakawala, survivors and advocates across
the globe, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen. Good day.
00:16:21
It is hard to believe that one year has passed
since the World Health Organization’s Strategy for Cervical Cancer Elimination
was launched. We applaud the ambitious goal that the strategy sets for lowering
the incident rate for vaccinating girls with the human papillomavirus for
screening women using the high performance test and ensuring that women with
pre-cancer are treated and those with invasive cancer are managed.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact
on the programme for many institutions, civil society or groups, governments,
non-governmental organisations. The pandemic has taken a huge toll on human
lives and human health and society. Among other things, we have seen high rates
of unintended pregnancies among girls as young as nine and ten years old.
We have seen high rates of gender-based violence.
In cities across the world, we have seen women and their children begging for
food at street corners. We have also observed the effects of the pandemic on
mental health and people’s sense of security and wellbeing.
The disturbing truth is that the poorest and
particularly women and girls have been the hardest hit. This has implications for
our struggle to eliminate cervical cancer. In the same way that access to life-saving
vaccines, diagnostics and treatment for cervical cancer has been severely limited,
an unequal access to life-saving COVID-19 vaccines is inexplicable and
inexcusable.
Unless we more urgently address the inequality
in access to life-saving commodities, we will stifle the prospects of the
children of Africa and many parts in the developing world and regions across
the world. If our efforts fail, we must accept that generational poverty will
become entrenched and development will be cut for many years and for
generations to come.
00:19:09
In such circumstances, the achievement of targets
of the global strategies for the elimination of cervical cancer will forever
remain a challenge. On the first anniversary of the global strategy we much
acknowledge that much good work has been done in every corner of our country
and the continent and for that I comment the World Health Organization and its
partners.
What we need is a greater sense of urgency,
greater equality and strengthened partnership between countries on the global South
and also between the global South and global North. We need to recognise the
critical role of the advocates and survivors who continue to be the beacons of
hope.
We will continue to advocate for the provision
of comprehensive health services, education and social support for young girls
and boys and women across the globe. I wish you well in the weeks ahead and
months ahead as we work for a world free from cervical cancer. Thank you for
your attention.
TAG Thank
you, Your Excellency. It’s now my honour to welcome Her Excellency Sika Kaboré, the First Lady of the Republic of Burkina Faso,
who sent us this video message.
00:20:42
NM Director-General,
Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, your excellencies, first ladies from South Africa and
Burkina-Faso, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. Good day to you all. It is an
honour and privilege to participate at this commemoration of the Global Strategy
Towards Cervical Cancer Elimination, a significant moment when Botswana joins
the global community to celebrate concerted efforts to eliminate cervical
cancer.
As we commemorate this day, we should not lose
sight of the burden this disease and other NCDs continue to place on the world
population, Botswana included. The latest evidence shows that cervical cancer
continues to be the leading cause of cancer morbidity at 27% and mortality at
12% in Botswana. This is of particular concern for women who are HIV positive,
as cervical cancer is both common and aggressive in the population.
For the past decade Botswana has been engaged at
global and regional levels to harness guidance in the establishment of
platforms for the effective and efficient screening, diagnosis and treatment
facilities for cervical cancer. All these interventions, they get to us
preparing for elimination of cervical cancer in the future, moving from
epidemic control to total cervical cancer elimination.
The Global Strategy for Elimination focuses on
three main areas, which are HPV vaccination, HPV testing and successful
treatment of those women with precancerous lesions and effective linkage in
treatment of women with cervical cancer.
Botswana has made tremendous progress in an
effort to eliminate cervical cancer through targeted vaccination campaigns. The
HPV vaccine coverage has been above 90% until 2019 when the country started
experiencing supply challenges.
00:22:29
Scale up to more visual inspection with acetic
acid VIA sites is ongoing with all the 18 regions covering at least two or
three VIA and new clinics. I am delighted to share the progress towards the
adoption and implementation of the initiatives entailed in the global strategy
for cervical elimination are well underway in Botswana. Efforts to collaborate
with the Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital, which is aimed at research to
establish better classification options for management of women with
screen-positive results for HPV tests, are ongoing.
Synergies have been established with the civil
society organisations who are key providers of HIV care to incorporate cervical
cancer screening and treatment. We have the tools and the knowledge to
eliminate cervical cancer. What we do with that is up to us. We can make
choices that condemn women to a painful, avoidable death or we can prioritise
their health so that a future generation of women and their families look back
with pride at the choices we made today.
As I conclude, ladies and gentlemen, I wish to
thank WHO for the model leadership, technical guidance and support as countries
commit to women’s health, in particular elimination of cervical cancer. I thank
you all.
00:23:50
TAG Thank
you. Thank you so much. Our apologies. That was the video message recorded by
Her Excellency Neo Jane Masisi, the First Lady of Botswana and thank you Your
Excellency. Now, we will see the video sent by Her Excellency, Sika Kaboré, the
First Lady of the Republic of Burkina Faso
SK Director-General,
ladies and gentlemen. I’d like to thank you for inviting me to participate
today as we’re marking the one year of the cervical cancer elimination effort.
This is, indeed, a global health problem and we’re working to eliminate this.
Cervical cancer is one of the easiest cancers to prevent and to treat but due
to ignorance and a lack of accessibility to healthcare systems, many people
remain victims of this cancer, especially in the poorest countries.
This situation leads to great disparities
between the North and the South and brings into question the issue of
healthcare inequalities. 194 countries have collectively joined up to put a
stop to this cervical cancer and Burkina Faso is well-involved in these
efforts. Thanks to our political efforts and with the support of our partners
we have conducted many projects in our country.
I’d like to point out a few of those now. We
have rolled out free screening and free treatment of pre-cancerous cells since
2016. This is within universal healthcare coverage for women and for girls.
We’ve also led an awareness-raising campaign about the vaccine, the HPV vaccine
for nine to 13-year-olds. We did this in 2014 and in 2015.
Moreover, we have conducted two prevention
campaigns against cervical cancer and finally we have implemented now for a few
years the first centre, the radiotherapy centre for cervical cancer. Very soon
the HPV vaccine will be integrated in our overall vaccine programme in the
country. The world of associations is very involved as is our community.
00:26:50
Director-General, ladies and gentlemen, winning
against this cancer requires effort from all technical support actors, from all
researchers, from civil society, from everybody, from healthcare workers, from
government above and beyond. Fighting this cancer requires us to strengthen and
bolster national efforts. It requires us to roll out more to prevent cancer, to
raise awareness among our population and to screen.
Of course, we must remember good governance and
strong financing strategies. This can be done with innovative partnerships. The
current management of COVID-19 is a great example of solidarity and strong
partnerships.
Within just a few months, many mechanisms have
been implemented to facilitate access to protection, to diagnostic tools and to
treating COVID, as well as preventing it with the vaccine. There are other
examples too, such as the Ouagadougou initiative. This is an inspiring
initiative which ought to be shared.
I am absolutely convinced that with the
commitment of all and judicial use of the tools available to us, in 2030 we
will be able to celebrate the success of the elimination of cervical cancer.
This will no longer be a public health issue at that point. Thank you very
much.
00:29:00
TAG Merci
beaucoup, Your Excellency and thank you for each of our first ladies for your
support, commitment and leadership. The first HPV vaccine was developed by an
Australian scientist, Dr Ian Frazer, and Australia remains one of the leading
countries in the global fight to eliminate cervical cancer.
We’re delighted to be joined today by Her
Excellency Sally Mansfield, Australia’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative
here in Geneva and we welcome the video message that has been recorded by the
Honourable Greg Hunt, Australia’s Minister for Health and Aged Care.
GH I
welcome the opportunity to address the World Health Organization, member states
and key international partners on such an important topic, the elimination of
cervical cancer. Today is an auspicious day, commemorating a year since the
launch of the WHO’s global commitment to eliminate cervical cancer as a public
health problem.
I thank the WHO for its focus on this vitally
important work and the role they’ve played in progressing it globally.
Australia has embraced the commitment, having championed and led the resolution
on the global strategy to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer with
the support of many other member states.
What an achievement it will be to close the door
on a cancer that has cut short the lives of far too many women around the
world. How can we get there? Because we can. The tools to eliminate cervical
cancer, vaccination, screening and treatment of pre-cancer, early detection and
prompt treatment already exist. The next critical step is to scale up the
implementation through domestic initiatives consistent with the global
strategy.
00:31:06
We need to continue to drive greater global
efforts so that by 2030 all countries can achieve 90% HPV vaccination coverage,
70% screening coverage and 90% access to treatment for cervical cancer,
pre-cancer and cancer and including to palliative care.
Australia will continue to work with the WHO to
promote the immunisation screening and treatment programmes that have proven so
effective at preventing and detecting cervical cancer. We especially look
forward to working with our regional neighbours in the WHO Western Pacific
region to develop a framework for the comprehensive prevention and control of
cervical cancer.
In relation to Australia, I’m deeply proud to
announce that Australia is on track to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035. Our
national cervical screening programme continues to be central to preventing
cervical cancer through early detection. Now 30 years old, the screening
programme has halved the number of cases and mortality rate in Australia.
The programme screens with a simple test now
done every five years with checks for HPV, the common infection that causes
almost all cervical cancers, and complementing the screening is our HPV
vaccination programme, a vaccine developed in Australia that helps protect
young people from getting a range of HPV-related cancers and diseases.
00:32:45
Our government has just announced funding that
will make self-collection of the sample for the cervical cancer test
universally available from July 2022. This is a gamechanger that gives women
control of taking the sample and makes the test more comfortable and less
invasive.
We’ve also just invested in the development of a
National Cervical Cancer Elimination Strategy for Australia by the end of 2022.
We are also funding Australia’s largest clinical trial, the Compass Trial,
which will produce world-first evidence on the interactions between HPV
vaccination and HPV-base screen.
It’s important that together we maintain
momentum and work to fulfil the opportunity available to the world to eliminate
cervical cancer. We have both the will and the way to achieve this goal. I once
again thank the WHO for its ongoing technical focus on this important work and
reiterate Australia’s profound commitment to this cause.
TAG Thank
you. Thank you, Honourable Minister, and my thanks to Australia for its
leadership and ambition. Finally, we can only eliminate cervical cancer with
the voices and advocacy of the women who suffer from this disease. It’s
therefore my great pleasure to welcome Karen Nakawala, a survivor of cervical
cancer and advocate from Zambia. Karen, thank you for joining us and you have
the floor.
00:34:22
KN Thank
you so very much and I can’t believe it is already a year since we launched the
strategy to eliminate cervical cancer as a health problem. Please allow me to ride
on the protocols that have already been observed. Now, each and every day, I’m
reminded of the pain, the anguish, the uncertainty of the possibly bleak future
as I went through the process from diagnosis right through to the harsh
treatment of cervical cancer.
My first thought was that I was going to die. My
greatest fear was leaving my daughters behind, of losing my best friend and
partner. However, as I progressed through the treatment, the fears became less
and less and I saw a glimmer of hope, but that brought on new unforeseen fears.
I was afraid of losing my femininity. I was afraid of the stigma attached to
cervical cancer. I was afraid of what my life would be like after cancer. Would
anything be the same at all? Here, the same is actually a very relative term.
This is the life of every cervical cancer patient.
After treatment I told myself and I promised
myself that I was going to fiercely fight to save the lives of my two
daughters, whom I was so afraid of leaving behind, by advocating for the HPV
vaccine for the young girls and screening for the adult women. We have and
continue to make strides with screening but we still need better access to
surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, brachytherapy to save more lives.
00:36:03
Unfortunately, I have not been able to get my
11-year-old vaccinated and I have to wait until she is 14. Imagine the
disappointment in a young girl when we were turned away after she saw
first-hand her mother go through the disease the debilitating effects of the
treatment and the anguish of a mother who is fighting to save the life or her
little girls and prevent her from going through the same excruciating
experience.
Now, this is real time and true life scenario in
most low and middle-income countries where the vaccine is literally rationed
and not readily available in comparison with the developed countries where our
friends have a choice whether to vaccinate their children or not, despite the
abundance and the availability of the vaccines in their countries.
There is need for the equitable distribution of
the vaccine if we are to eliminate cervical cancer and by the way, we are all
very actively engaged in the elimination of cervical cancer globally, not just
in one geographical location.
We all know that 19 out the 20 countries with
the highest burden of cervical cancer are in Africa, yet they are the ones with
the least access to the HPV vaccine. Until and unless this trend is turned
around, the global fight against cervical cancer will remain but a slogan.
COVID-19 has brought about its own very serious
challenges. While the aim has been to try and keep everyone safe by limiting
movement, it means that there has been very limited access to screening
services and a very low uptake of the HPV vaccine.
00:37:46
In the eastern part of my country, for instance,
we are battling with teenage pregnancies. Girls as young as ten years old are
falling pregnant before they can even access the HPV vaccine. The odds are
highly stacked against them because of their early sexual debut. By the time
they are 20, most of them will have gone through multiple pregnancies and will
no doubt be exposed to HIV, clearly making them quite openly susceptible to
cervical cancer.
Yes, it is imperative that we save the global
population from COVID-19 but we need to bear in mind that cancer does not stop.
The same efforts we are seeing in trying to end COVID-19, we need to see the
same efforts applied to eliminate cervical cancer because it is preventable.
When the World Health Organization launched the
strategy to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer I saw hope. I saw a
light at the end of the tunnel. I saw practically a door opening wide towards
saving lives. However, this light can and will remain a candle light flickering
in the wind until the HPV vaccine is distributed, accessed and is readily
available for all girls without prejudice between the ages of nine and 14
throughout the world.
In conclusion, for us to prevent and eliminate
cervical cancer there will be need for improved and enhance cooperation and
coordination amongst countries, improved health delivery system, equitable
distribution of vaccines, especially here in Africa, HPV vaccine which should
be accessed at any time by the target audience, improved, consistent and timely
delivery of messages to target audiences, increased awareness on HPV screening
and testing, address all visible and invisible barrier to treatment, actively
engage cervical cancer survivors and the youth in all the programmes that we
are going to design to eliminate cervical cancer as a health problem.
00:39:49
Low and middle-income countries need to be
supported in providing better quality services to their patients. We need more
survivors but we can do better by eliminating cervical cancer completely and we
can do it. We just have to work together. Thank you.
TAG Thank
you. Thank you Karen. You’re right. Together we can. Thank you. To lead the
next part of our event, it’s now my great pleasure to hand over to Assistant
Director-General, Dr Nono Simelela, who leads WHO’s global strategy to
eliminate cervical cancer. Nono, over to you.
NS Thank
you. Thank you, DG. Thank you for your leadership and your commitment to this
very important disease that is preventable, as you’ve said that the world has
the tools for. Let me thank the excellencies, the first ladies, who continue to
show leadership and who are our champions in this fight, Ambassador Sally
Mansfield, as well as all the other honourable colleagues who are here, who
continue to be partners in the path to the elimination of cervical cancer. So,
let me greet everybody who has joined us from all parts of the world.
A year on since the launch of the global
strategy for the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem
there has been important progress. The Director-General elaborated on some of
the things that we have managed to do working with member states and partners
to advance this commitment.
00:41:51
Despite the disruptions caused by the COVID-19
pandemic, you have heard how countries have continued to introduce the HPV
vaccine and how work has continued in spite of the challenges. WHO has
responded to requests for support from our member states with technical
assistance as well as with all the technical products that are available that
will support countries in implementation.
A number of them are worthy of notice, of being
prioritised and also being shared with you all. We’ve got now country profiles
which have been published which will be extremely helpful to determine
baselines across the continuum for countries.
We’ve got, as well, new guidance specifically
for screening and treatment of cervical cancer among women living with HIV who
are a particularly vulnerable group. Risk here has increased six-fold for women
living with HIV. Therefore, to have a guideline that shows us that we need to
screen early, to intervene early has been extremely helpful.
We’ve got now innovation, as the DG has
mentioned, with artificial intelligence and easy tools to ablate and to treat
women with pre-cervical lesions. We are focusing also on helping countries
through our partners who are focusing on dealing with advanced cervical cancer,
radiotherapy, chemotherapy and palliative care.
00:43:31
So, the continuum is intact, the tools are available,
but tools are but tools. They need people, they need resources and they need
very dedicated expertise at the delivery level, so we much continue to
encourage our healthcare providers to integrate these tools but also to support
them because there is so much that healthcare providers on the frontline need
to do.
We are extremely excited that the advocates
across the world continue to champion this very, very important disease and I
am very, very excited that our partners, who also contribute so much through
their dedication, through their commitment, are here today to tell us about how
they will continue to support this work and their own political commitments,
resource commitments and the things that they will really put on the table to
change the narrative on cervical cancer.
Here with us today I am very, very excited and
happy to introduce Philippe Duneton, who is the Executive Director of Unitaid,
our partners, who have done a lot for us in terms of diagnostics and treatment.
Over to you, Philippe.
PD Thank
you very much, Dr Nono. Excellencies, first ladies, Dr Tedros, Madam
Ambassador, dear colleagues and friends, Unitaid is very proud to be here today
and also very proud to have responded to the call for action for elimination of
cervical cancer. I just want also to have a thought for a friend I lost, she
was 34 and died from cervical cancer, leaving two kids, and also for all the
women who are dying or suffering from cervical cancer in the world.
00:46:02
I think one key word is inequity. I think in
that case it is obvious. Nine out of ten women who are dying from cervical
cancer are in fact from the lower and middle-income countries. So, for us, it
is absolutely important. We have invested $60 million with two grantees, CHAI
and Expertise France, supporting intervention in 14 countries in three
continents.
As mentioned, I think that the access to care in
particular in Africa was a challenge and is still a challenge and I think it is
important to say that in real life it works. In addition to the vaccine, for
sure, because we need to have access to vaccine but test-and-treat is working.
That’s our experience. It is organised around the training of nurses but also
the availability of tools. Diagnostics is absolutely key and detecting the
virus directly increases the level of quality of the screening including
self-test, I will come back to that, but also treat and it can be done in one go,
which is also very important.
So, we have demonstrated that it is feasible in
low resource settings. We have demonstrated that we can decrease the price of
the test by 40% and also 50% in the tools used for thermal ablation, for
example, and it can be in a very decentralised way. Unfortunately, like the
world and we all live this situation with COVID-19, it has been slower than
expected, but I can say now that even if we test more than 2,000 women, we
believe that by the end of 2022 we could be on track and to treat over one
million women by the end of next year.
00:48:32
So, it’s encouraging. We have seen that even if
it was slow at some point, it was resilient. The way the people and the
healthcare workers have been trained is absolutely key. We have trained more than
6,500 professionals to do that and I think that it is absolutely key.
The other thing we have learned, even with
difficulty with COVID-19, is the importance of self-test. I think it was
mentioned by Dr Nono but it is very key because it is way, really, to increase
access for the women in a way that self-collection is more easy to do. It is
also less intrusive, in a way.
Again, our commitment is absolutely important
for us. We still have the goal to have test-and-treat for around one dollar per
woman. Of course, with the evolution I think they you released the guidelines
for artificial intelligence as part of the grant. We hope that we can develop
that because it will be a key element to achieve this goal.
To finish, I think that I will also say how we
appreciate the strong partnership with WHO and partners and the leadership. Dr
Tedros, your leadership but also your team that we are really closely working
together. We believe it is important, we believe it is feasible and we hope
that the work that we are doing with your support and in-country can also lead
more countries to join the fight and implement test-and-treat to eliminate
cervical cancer. Thank you.
NS Thank
you and thank you very much for your commitment, Philippe, and your team and to
really help us push the agenda on diagnostics. This is very important because
the artificial intelligence-driven tools will be the gamechanger for many
low-income and lower-middle-income countries.
00:51:04
We have with us today another very good partner,
although this is there first foray into the space of cervical cancer. I would
like to invite Professor Kickbusch, from FIND. Everybody who works with us
knows that this is the innovation for new diagnostics and we hand over to you
to tell us more about how you will support us in this fight to eliminate
cervical cancer. Thank you, Ilona. Over to you.
IK Thank
you very much, Princess, DG, excellencies, ambassador, colleagues and women
around the world. It was very bold for WHO to launch this strategy at the
COVID-19 pandemic raged but that is an essential reminder that other deadly
disease don’t press pause when COVID-19 emerged.
Every two minutes a woman dies for cervical
cancer. Those are daughters, mothers, sisters, partners, wives and friends.
We’ve heard that from other speakers at this meeting today. Every single loss
is preventable. Every death is too much.
You know that the WHO global strategy sets out a
clear plan, the 90-70-90 targets which are ambitious but clearly are achievable.
I’m here today representing FIND, the global alliance for diagnostics. Our
focus is on the middle target number. 70% of women should be screened with a
high-performance test by the age of 35 and again before they turn 45.
00:52:53
WHO has rightly made screening a key element of
this strategy because early diagnosis means the disease can be cured, which
means women’s lives can be saved. But, as we see with so many diseases, lack of
access to testing is robbing women of their chance of an early diagnosis.
In low and middle-income countries, where health
systems are weakest and access barriers are highest, three times as many women
die of cervical cancer than in high-income countries. Many screening programmes
in these countries are just pilots. Very few countries, most of them in
high-income countries, have scaled up to national programmes, we heard from
Australia for example, with at least 7O% coverage.
Reasons are many. They include high prices and
out-of-pocket expenses for women, as well as weak infrastructure to support HPV
testing, both of which hinder scale-up. Low test demand and uncertainty about
HPV test uptake remains a key barrier for large scale price reduction but, as
we see, even removing those barriers will not be enough to guarantee access.
Last year, we joined forces with Women in Global
Health to gather the evidence on women’s access to testing and explore the
potential of women as drivers of change in health systems to help close the
testing gap that is holding back universal health coverage and health for all.
We found that gender norms and roles also play a
major yet underestimated part in limited access to testing. For example, in
many cases women rely on their husbands for money to access healthcare or are
not allowed to take time off work to visit a clinic.
00:55:01
Bluntly said, a complex cocktail of technical,
sociocultural and economic barriers to testing is seen time and time again
across so many of the diseases prevalent in low and middle income countries.
Eliminating cervical cancer, ending tuberculosis, defeating malaria and
hepatitis, beating AMR, all of these require stronger testing systems that work
for everyone of all genders, no matter where they are.
Our research also shows that women lack trust in
testing services and many fear the procedures, diagnosis and stigmas, as we
heard from survivors. The tests that women specifically need, such as those for
cervical cancer, diagnosis and screening are also often not available in low
and middle-income countries health systems. These barriers, of course, are
compounded for women who are marginalised or are in humanitarian contexts.
To achieve the WHO targets for cervical cancer
and many other diseases, which means making UHC a reality, we cannot ignore the
gender issues when tackling access to testing.
Finally, how is FIND leveraging 20 years of
experience in diagnostic testing to help meet the targets? A number of existing
FIND donors strongly support the expansion of our work into women’s health and
I personally am delighted about that and they support our efforts in helping
develop gender-responsive and potentially gender-transformative national diagnostic
and screening strategies. These include Canada, the European Union, the
Netherlands and Norway.
00:57:00
In our latest strategy we commit to improving
the health of women and children through testing. Today, we are marking another
concrete step on that journey by announcing a new initiative to improve
cervical cancer diagnosis and screening using innovative technologies in low
and middle-income countries.
Our work will encompass point-of-care HPV tests,
use of digital and mobile technology for screening and self-sampling approaches
to overcome barriers and improve access to testing. Together, we can make sure
that everyone who needs a test can get one, that every women can get a test.
Thank you very much.
NS Thank
you. Thank you very much, Ilona, for this very important announcement which
will move us closer to the goals and the targets we have set. Another partner
who is going to join us today is Mr Eric Fleutelot, who is working closely with
Expertise France, our partners and implementing agencies on the ground. Over to
you, Eric.
EF Thank
you very much, Dr Nono. It’s a great pleasure for me to be here. I’m going to
speak in French so you can switch your translation channel. Excellencies, first
ladies, Director-General, Dr Nono, it’s a great honour to be here with you
today on the first anniversary of the launch of the Global Strategy to Accelerate
the Elimination of Cervical Cancer.
I’m also very pleased that there are so many of
us here today. So many of us have decided to mobilise ourselves to eliminate
this illness. As has been mentioned, we are working with Expertise France to
lead two main programmes which are very successful and have been supported by
Unitaid and these programmes scale up the fight against cervical cancer through
a secondary prevention strategy. We also have the initiative, which is a
facility with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at
present.
00:59:32
Too many women are dying from cervical cancer.
It has already been said but I will repeat that one woman dies from cervical
cancer every two minutes, so it is crucial and very urgent that we act before
it is too late and other women die. We must also consider the fact that women
living with HIV are at a much greater risk of developing cervical cancer,
therefore we much commit through these initiatives to combat these illnesses.
Our project provides innovation but also
technical assistance. Every year we publish calls for projects and this
receives responses, whether it is from civil society, ministries of health,
research institutions. These are catalytic projects and what we would like is
to authorise change in policies and practices on the ground.
We want to contribute to scaling-up healthcare
systems and improving access to healthcare systems for the most vulnerable and
most marginalised populations. The 2022 call for projects will be published on
1st December and we need projects, projects that better integrate
the fight against cervical cancer in order to demonstrate the efficacy, the
profitability of these projects.
01:01:09
But, alongside these calls for projects we have
other projects. Namely, countries request technical assistance, for example, to
help implement their national strategies for tackling HIV and this may be
focused on the comorbidity with, for example, cervical cancer.
This is possible throughout the year and every
month the initiative allows this possibility. All stakeholders in the public
health care system must commit to tackling cervical cancer. We can cure
cervical cancer if we manage it and treat it early. We must ensure that all
young girls and women can be vaccinated in time and it is also crucial that men
commit to this fight. They must join this fight and we must ensure that all
partners, friends, women, sisters, wives have better access to healthcare, to
screening, to treatment and to vaccinations. Thank you.
NS Thank
you. Thank you very, very much, Eric, for that. The next partner who is going
to be speaking to us is a healthcare provider who is working in Little Haiti,
Ms Dinah Trevil represents a landmark collaboration that we have been working
with the University of Miami. The University of Miami has just recently been
entered into the list of collaborating centres with WHO, specifically for
focusing on the elimination of cervical cancer.
We’ve got many collaborating centres, we
acknowledge that, but this specific one is important because they have
committed to really take forward the work on cervical cancer and it is
important, I think, so see the partnerships at work between such institutions
and health providers on the ground. So, I’d like to welcome Dinah Trevil, in
Little Haiti, who is on the ground working with women. Over to you, Dinah.
01:03:50
DT Thank
you, Princess. On behalf of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the
University of Miami, we are honoured to be a part of the WHO collaborating
centres for cervical cancer elimination. We look forward to working with WHO in
this important global effort to support countries to achieve the cervical
cancer elimination targets.
As a community health worker, I am excited to be
a part of this movement. For all of the women that we serve in South Florida
and beyond, we stand with you. Nosotros estamos contigo. Nous sommes avec vous.
And, to my sisters in Haiti and across the Haitian diaspora, nou kanpe avèk ou.
Thank you.
NS Thank
you. Thank you very much for that contribution. As I close this part of the day
for our work, I just want to mention that we are very excited by the decision
by the government of Japan to reintroduce HPV vaccination into their national
programmes. We know that 12 years ago they had to suspend the programme, really
on the basis of bad information on so-called adverse events.
I just want to refer to The Lancet article that
confirms that these vaccines are safe, that they are efficacious and that we
can use them with confidence. So, we congratulate that political will and we
just want to urge many other governments to start with this important step. I
just want to thank everybody again and to hand over to you, Carla, for this
session.
01:05:41
CD Thanks
so much, Dr Nono, and thanks to all of our speakers for their remarks. We will
now start the Q&A for media section of the briefing. If I could just ask
you to please enter your name and media outlet and to ask a question. Please,
only one question and if you can click Raise Hand icon. We will only be taking
questions related to cervical cancer elimination today, as I mentioned before.
I’d like to just start off with a question that
was actually sent to us in advance from Amy Maxmen, before this presser, from
Nature. Amy asked what are the barriers to catching and treating this disease
early and what are the barriers to getting girls the HPV vaccine? Did the
Mexico City policy have a negative effect on cervical cancer or the HPV vaccine
rollout. So, I will hand that over to you, Dr Nono.
NS Thank
you, Carla, and thank you very much for the question. The issues around access
and the barriers, there are supply side issues and there are demand side
challenges across the world.
The supply issues obviously deal with the fact
that there is very limited access to the technologies that we need, that many
low income and lower-middle-income countries are still using very old-fashioned
methods of screening women with acetic acid and nurses have to really be
trained very well to do this.
This method is not accurate because it really depends
on the provider and their ability to see what the results are when they apply
the acetic acid. So, you’ve got those challenges and you also have challenges
with sufficient healthcare providers, well-trained with the necessary skills to
provide this service to women.
01:08:00
Demand side issues have been referred to earlier
by Karen. A stigmatised disease, a disease that really makes it difficult for
women to come into the centre and ask for help. It affects a very, very private
part of women’s bodies and it is something that we see makes it very, very
difficult.
We also have challenges with women’s ability to
leave their homes to come into the services to get care. I would argue that any
policy that prevents access to a comprehensive set of services for sexual and
reproductive health is really counterproductive and indirectly, by putting such
a policy, we impact on women’s agency.
Part of the work that we are keen to see happen
is to deal with issues pertaining to women in a comprehensive way. It is very
difficult to say to a healthcare provider, deal only with this part, the HIV
part. Do not talk about unintended pregnancies. Do not talk about access to
termination services if the women so wish.
We really want to promote comprehensive
approaches and therefore, in an indirect way, such policies really do affect
the assumptions, the stance of people and they affect the ability of providers
to just be comprehensive in their approach. So, we hope that with all of the
changes that are positive, despite the pushback that still continues around
sexual and reproductive health services, we will champion on as an institution
to support member states to provide comprehensive reproductive health and
sexual services across the world.
01:10:06
CD Thanks
very much, Dr Nono. I know there was a second part to that question about the
Mexico City policy and did it have a negative effect on cervical cancer or HPV
vaccine rollout. Would you be able to address that, as well? Thanks.
NS I
think what I was trying to elaborate is that the Mexico gag rule was a step
back because it is a small part of the comprehensive approaches that were are
looking for. So, inadvertently, you do affect uptake of services because not
what you are doing is compartmentalising women’s lives and saying this part of
your problem, we have a policy that says you can’t get access but everything
else we can do for you.
That is something that I really believe was
negative. We saw in the services, particularly, those non-governmental
organisations that were beneficiaries of the funding providing these services.
So, that lumped the two issues into my reply because it is really about this
comprehensive approach that we want to promote, even as we focus on this
preventable cancer. Thank you.
CD Thank
you for that comprehensive answer. Do we have Latika, from Sydney Morning
Herald on the line and, if so, could you unmute Latika and please go ahead and
ask your question.
01:11:46
LB Thank
you very much for taking my question. Dr Tedros and any other members of the
panel, I was struck by Australia’s health minister outlining how Australia is
on track to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035 and then so many of your other
panelists underlining how 90% of deaths are occurring in the low and
middle-income countries.
So, what more do you need or would like to see
countries like Australia doing to help address that to achieve your targets?
Are you concerned at all that those things are going to be made more difficult
than even your quest for better solidarity in responding to COVID, given HPV is
a much more silent killer and it is not highly transmissible like COVID-19?
CD Thanks
very much for that question. Would you like to address that, Dr Nono? Thanks.
NS What
we expect from countries that have moved closer to the target is the support
that we have seen come through from Australia, championing the resolution and
making sure that we arrive at this first year anniversary. Relationships
between countries that have the means, that also have the wherewithal to do
this and countries that are really lagging behind is what we are seeking to
achieve.
We would like to see more work being done with
North-South collaboration. We expect that support and we know that it will come
through. I think it is very exciting to hear these new announcements because
even within Australia we know that there are women who still have challenges
with access. We are learning lessons from how they are dealing with the
indigenous populations because these are part and parcel of the challenges,
mainly in low and lower-middle-income countries.
01:13:50
We look forward to Australia’s support, to their
example, their exemplar in how you deal with these things and we have even the
professor, who DG referred to, who identified and developed this vaccine
working on the expert group. So, it’s about knowledge-sharing, it’s about
partnerships, it’s also about examples for other countries of how you reach the
targets to eliminate cervical cancer. We work closely with Professor Frazer and
many others in Australia to help us support other countries. Over to you, DG.
CD Yes,
would any of our first ladies, who may still be on the line, would you like to
come in here and comment, please? I don’t think they’re on the line still but
I’m going to hand over to Dr Tedros now.
TAG Thank
you. Thank you so much. First of all, I would like to thank Australia for its
commitment and the announcement also from the minister. I think we need that
kind of leadership. I think you associated this with COVID. Of course, COVID is
acute and everybody is now focused because it is an emergency and, as you
rightly said, cervical cancer is a silent killer and it is not really as
visible as the emergency we’re facing now. But, losing two women every one
minute is not a small problem, it’s a big problem.
But, as has been said, most of the countries
that are contributing to the disease are actually developing countries and as
we speak 80 countries have not started vaccination and they contribute two
thirds of the disease we see now.
01:16:09
So, going forward what can countries do and
follow Australia’s example? One is to take the 90-70-90 target as their target.
That is the first thing to do. That we have said already earlier. The 90% vaccination,
70% screening, 90% treatment and also the 90% palliative care.
The first thing should be to own the target,
this global target. Then, of course, we know what is needed to achieve this
target. We need the vaccines, we need the test kits, we need the drugs, meaning
we need resources, so there should be support from countries and donors and
foundations to contribute in terms of resources that could go to those
products, starting from vaccines, as I said.
It is almost the same as what we’re doing now for
COVID. We have the 40% target by the end of this year and we have the amount
already known, the amount of vaccines we need to vaccinate the 40%. So, we need
to approach cervical cancer the same way, relate it to target, the resources we
need and then mobilisation of donors and those who can afford to support others
to provide the support that is need.
Of course, not only from governments, but as I
said in my statement, this should be the responsibility of the manufacturers
also. We need access to the treatment, access to vaccines, access to the test
kits and the role of the manufacturers is also very, very important.
01:18:17
That is why, by the way, we took Henrietta Lacks
as a reference. Her cells are being used and the cells are actually impacted
the world in many positive ways and I think we should remember her. She didn’t
have a chance to survive because there were no tools but now, because of her,
we have tools, so we owe it to her and we owe it to the women who are suffering
from this disease to provide the support that’s needed to achieve the targets
we have already set for ourselves.
So, that’s what we need. It’s already in the
strategy and we need to make sure that we have the world mobilised to eliminate
cervical cancer and it is possible. Thank you, Carla, and back to you.
CD Thanks
so much, Dr Tedros. You mentioned Henrietta Lacks and in this next section of
today’s programme we will be hearing from members of Henrietta Lacks’ family,
so that will be really exciting. I would like to just thank all of our speakers
today and also to the journalists who stayed on a joined us. Also, a huge
thanks to our interpreters, as always.
We will be sending post-presser links. We’ve
already sent to our global media list the press release and if you have any
further questions for media, please do write to mediainquiries@who.int.
Now, I’m going to hand the floor over to Richard
Freeman, who is WHO Advocacy Lead for Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative
and he will moderate the second hour of today’s event in conjunction with Dr
Nono. Richard, you have the floor.
01:20:35
RF Thank
you and thank you, everyone, for joining us. One year ago today we launched the
Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer and
communities around the world rallied by turning words into action. On this day
last year, the countdown to achieve the 90-70-90 targets by the year 2030
began.
To mark the occasion, advocates, communities,
ministries have again mobilised actions to advance cervical cancer elimination.
We’ll take you to a number of locations around the world where efforts are
underway at this moment but first we’ll hear from the survivors and advocates.
They’re the real warriors on the frontlines of the fight to eliminate cervical
cancer.
[Video starts].
How do I describe myself? [Karen, Zambia]. I am a
mother of two. [Eve, United States]. I am first a momma to two delicious little
kiddies. [Nanthini, Malaysia]. I’m a mother for two kids. [Laura, United
Kingdom]. I’ve got two children. [Edilia, El Salvador]. [Foreign language].
[Karen, Zambia]. I’m naturally a very happy
person. [Laura, United Kingdom] Busy. Always busy. [Nanthini, Malaysia]. I’m
working in a florist. [Edilia, El Salvador]. [Foreign language]. [Masuzgyo,
Zambia]. I live in Mazabuka, Zambia. [Edilia, El Salvador]. El Salvador. [Nanthini,
Malaysia]. Malaysia. [Karen, Zambia]. Lusaka, Zambia. [Eve, United States]. The
United States.
01:21:59
[Masuzgyo, Zambia]. I’m a cancer survivor. [Eve, United States]. I’m a cervical cancer survivor.
[We are coming together to mark one year of the global movement]. [Nanthini,
Malaysia]. Since I was small, I thought that there’s no treatment for cervical
cancer or any other cancers. If anybody with cancer, they will die.
[Edilia, El Salvador]. [Foreign language]. [Eve,
United States]. I was diagnosed with stage 2B cervical cancer when I was
pregnant with my second baby, my son Arthur. I was completely unprepared. [Laura,
United Kingdom]. And, I just kept saying, I can’t die, I can’t die because you
think of cancer and you think death. I just kept saying please save me. [Masuzgyo,
Zambia]. I told myself, what I’m going through, no other woman is supposed to
go through.
[Eve, United States]. The pandemic has
underscored for all of us, how fragile our healthcare systems truly are and
even more devastatingly it has underscored how deep our cleavages are in access
to quality care. The people who need the care the most are often the first left
behind.
[Edilia, El Salvador]. A neighbour of mine
didn’t want to undergo the treatment. She said to me, no. No one can defeat
cancer. And I said, yes, you will get over it. Look at me. I’m a cancer
survivor. Thank God my friend listened to me. And, there she is. She is a
cancer survivor.
[Masuzgyo, Zambia]. I asked myself if I don’t
want any other woman to go through it then how will I help out the women out
there? Given any opportunity that I have I always want to talk to the women and
let them know cervical cancer is real. [Karen, Zambia]. I was nominated to sit
on the Commonwealth Task Force to Eliminate Cervical Cancer. I am partnered
with other civil society organisations in-country because I believe that
synergy is what is going to help eradicate cervical cancer.
01:24:19
[Laura, United Kingdom]. I’m advocating these
issues through all the charity work that I do. For every woman that I speak to
I learn something different. It was very easy for me at the beginning to judge
someone who didn’t make screening important in their life but I know now how
difficult it can be for some women and, for me, it’s all about listening,
encouraging and supporting, not judging anyone, just being there for when they
need me.
[Eve, United States]. Part of my purpose in
supporting this initiative is making sure that every eligible woman receives
the same type of care that I was so fortunate to receive in my battle against
cervical cancer. [Karen, Zambia]. I see the movement creating a lot of
traction. I see it creating a lot of conversations, but most importantly I see
it creating a lot of coordination and cooperation amongst countries.
[Nanthini, Malaysia]. To the parents out there, please
allow your children to get the HPV vaccine so that they will be protected. And,
for the ladies out there, go and get screened yourself. Go and save your life.
[Laura. United Kingdom]. Reach out for anyone you care about with a cervix.
Tell them to look after themselves.
01:25:39
[Masuzgyo, Zambia]. I would actually stand on
top of the world and encourage each and every women to say have you had your
screening? [Karen, Zambia]. Women are the cornerstone and fibre of every
society and so when we lose one woman it’s the whole society that suffers.
[Edilia, El Salvador]. I feel like I’m a
warrior. I keep on living despite all the illness I have had. But, here I am.
[Eve, United States]. And, for any woman who is unfortunately experiencing the
same or may experience the same diagnosis let my message release you from the
shame that you may feel.
[Edilia, El Salvador]. Here I am, encouraging
people to undergo treatments. [Karen, Zambia]. To my fellow survivors, I’d like
to encourage you not to waste your pain. There’s a woman out there who is going
through exactly what you went through and they could use your experience.
[Laura, United Kingdom]. To leaders and
policymakers what I say is you’re the ones who can make the difference, so do
it. There’s no price on a life no matter what your postcode is. Wherever you
live in the planet, every life matters. That’s what it means to me.
[Masuzgyo, Zambia]. I represent survival and
life today, I represent it. [Join the movement to eliminate cervical cancer].
[Video ends].
RF The
colour for cervical cancer awareness and now the colour for elimination is the
colour teal. When we launched the strategy on November 17th last
year out of the darkness of the current pandemic, communities showed our
resolve by lighting up monuments in teal.
01:27:28
Today, on the first anniversary of that moment
over 100 landmarks in all regions are showing our resolve to eliminate cervical
cancer again. In the evening time zones some landmarks have already begun
lighting up and more are coming to your part of the world soon. Let’s have a look.
[Video plays].
[Last year a tradition began. Over 100 landmarks
around the world glowed teal to launch a global movement to eliminate cervical
cancer. One year later, the world continues the tradition… It’s already begun.]
[National Carillon, Australia]. [Old Parliament
House, Australia]. Telstra Tower, Australia]. [Maroc Telecom Tower, Morocco].
[…more are on the way.] [Kyoto Tower, Japan]. [Cebu City Hall, Philippines].
[Christchurch Airport, New Zealand]. [Great Silk Road Registan Square,
Uzbekistan]. [Bled Castle, Slovenia]. [Palace of Culture and Science, Poland]. [Colombo
Town Hall, Sri Lanka]. [Howrah Bridge, India]. [Emir of Argungu Palace,
Nigeria].
[Capitol Building, Puerto Rico]. [Colpatria
Tower, Colombia]. [Ponte Estaiada, Brazil]. [16th Street Baptist
Church, Birmingham, USA]. Niagara Falls, Canada]. [The movement is building.
Join us to #GlowTeal for a world without cervical cancer.]
[Video ends].
01:28:54
RF
This year the Director-General honoured Henrietta Lacks posthumously with an award
to recognise her life and her legacy. Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer
in 1951 in Baltimore at a time of legalised racial segregation. She was
exploited when her HeLa cells were taken without her knowledge but through her
cells she left behind a contribution that changed the world, allowing for
countless medical innovations.
The Lacks family is back with us today and
they’re mobilising action for cervical cancer elimination in their community.
We’ll now go to Baltimore to her great-granddaughter, Veronica Robinson, who is
with us on the line.
VR I
join you from the lab where I honour my great-grandmother’s legacy and her HeLa
cells from the bedside. Her cells have not just had an impact on our family but
has had an impact on the world. From polio, HIV, COVID and HPV, even IVF, my
great-grandmother has a huge impact on the world.
As we continue to celebrate our Hennie, the
mother of modern medicine. Through HELA100, the Henrietta Lacks family-led
initiative has four objectives. Celebration. Help us celebrate my great-grandmother,
Henrietta Lacks, legacy by reclaiming her story, HELA100, to ensure her
contributions are recognised and the impact of her HeLa cells are honoured, not
just in our family but worldwide.
Conversation. Through HELA100, the Lacks
family-led initiative, we’ve been facilitating conversations to educate the
next generation on Henrietta Lacks’ impact by amplifying trusted voices while
advancing diversity, equity and inclusion.
01:30:51
Collaborations. The Lacks family, we believe
that we should collaborate to educate and empower patients, providers and
policymakers to improve our outcomes globally and increase access to the
innovations made possible by my great grandmother, Henrietta Lacks and her HeLa
cells.
Mobilisation. Mobilising through the arts,
advocacy education and science to honour Henrietta Lacks legacy around the
world while promoting health equity and social justice. Next, you’ll be hearing
from my sister, Victoria Baptiste, our family’s RN, a frontline worker, who
will be joining you from the bedside.
VB Today,
on cervical cancer elimination call to action, I will be using my call to
action her, as a nurse, in the clinic. I’m educating my patients on cervical
cancer screening, as well as treatment and HPV vaccines.
This year marks the 70th anniversary
of the HeLa cells and the Lacks family went on a worldwide tour honouring her
legacy through arts, advocacy, education and research. We launched in Bristol
with a statue unveiling. We had conversations with Her Excellency, Dr Shinkafi-Bagudu
and Dr Amina Abubakar Bello, as well as Karen Nakawala, of the Teal Sisters in
Zambia. We then went over to be honoured with a wonderful award in Geneva with
the WHO.
And, today, the Lacks family is proud to
announce the first steps to eliminate cervical cancer. We will be hosting a Listening
Summit, including survivors, providers, caregivers, community leaders, patient
navigators and clinicians like myself to listen, learn and identify barriers
and solutions. So, I want to turn it over to my cousin, Alfred.
01:33:05
AC My
family is honoured to join the World Health Organization because we know and no
woman should be denied these vaccines that were created by the HeLa cell and
the Lacks family is demanding access for all women, all girls, all boys and all
communities around the world. We all stand together in solidarity to eliminate
cervical cancer once and for all.
RF Veronica
is on the line with a few words for us, Veronica Robinson, Henrietta Lacks’
great granddaughter.
VR As
you’ve just seen, it’s been a remarkable year for us. Thank you to her
excellences, Dr Tedros, Dr Nono and Richard. On behalf of Henrietta Lacks’
family, we are honoured to be here today again with our friends from the World
Health Organization, global leaders and advocates on the Cervical Cancer
Elimination Day.
RF Thank
you. Thank you, Veronica, and thank you to the Lacks family. Now, we’d like to
go around the world and share a look at some of the Day of Action activities
that have been unfolding to mark one year of cervical cancer elimination
effort. We’re going to begin with the Western Pacific region but to get us
started, I have the honour of giving the floor to the Ambassador of Australia,
Her Excellency, Sally Mansfield, for a few remarks.
01:34:55
SM Thank
you very much, indeed, Dr Tedros, distinguished guests, women and girls
everywhere, in particular health workers, colleagues. Australia is really proud
to be here to reiterate our support for cervical cancer elimination worldwide.
This is a time of immense challenge, particularly for women and girls who have
suffered the greatest burden as a result of the pandemic.
We’ve seen health systems around the world
disrupted as never before and we must work together to ensure everyone gets the
best health services possible and that has to include prevention and early
detection of cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer is still one of the most common
causes of cancer-related death in women across the globe, with incidents nearly
twice as high in low and middle-income countries and death rates three times as
high, but it doesn’t have to be like this.
Australia’s achievements show that eliminating
cervical cancer is an attainable public health goal. Since we started national
screening back in 1991 and rolled out HPV vaccination in 2007, Australia has
halved the number of women who die from this insidious disease and we’re on
track for elimination by 2035.
01:36:19
As the Director-General and the eminent speakers
before me have emphasised, we have the knowledge, we have the tools to stop
women suffering and dying from this preventable disease. This is why Australia
supports so strongly the development of the global strategy and why we are
working so hard to implement it.
We know where the highest burden of cancer sits.
It sits in the developing world. Within Australia’s region, the Indo-Pacific
countries, Australia is working to implement the WHO global strategy with
partners including UNFPA, IPPF and Gavi, to strengthen services and support the
regional rollout of HPV vaccines.
We’ve just heard from a number of fabulous women
who have survived. They’re speaking out, they’re speaking up and that makes
these women extraordinary. If we seize the opportunities that are within our
reach now, girls who are born today, girls who are born this year will live to
see a world free of cervical cancer. Let’s make this our legacy and as Dr
Tedros said, together we can. Thank you.
RF Now,
we’ll see some of the activities that are happening today in the Western
Pacific Region.
[Video plays].
WL [Malaysia].
[Prof Dr Woo Yin Ling, Medical Technical Advisor].
On behalf of Malaysia and ROSE Foundation, I’m very pleased to be able to share
with you all the community effort and how we, as Malaysians, have come together
to celebrate the first anniversary of the Global Strategy to Eliminate Cervical
Cancer.
01:38:21
AD [Prof Dato’ Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman].
In the coming years, in the coming months, what we hope to do is to continue to
implement programme ROSE with strategic partnerships to reach out to women all
over Malaysia.
ZS [Dr Zakiah Bt Mohd Said]. In conjunction with the celebration of the first anniversary of
this movement, Malaysia is working towards a cervical cancer-free nation with a
national action plan carefully aligned to all.
[Video ends].
[Video plays].
[China]. [12 cities in China conduct awareness
activities and illuminate landmarks to mark the first year of the Cervical
Cancer Elimination Movement]. [School of Population Medicine and Public Health].
[Jining]. [Dalian]. [Baotou]. [Zhengzhou]. [Lanzhou]. [Urumqi]. [Chengdu].
[Chongqing]. [Xiamen]. [Guangzhou]. [Shenzhen].
[Video ends].
01:41:35
RF While
we focus on cervical cancer elimination, we also must not forget the physical
pain and suffering that the disease brings, yet many patients lack access to
the palliative care that WHO’s elimination strategy calls for. So, to
commemorate one year of this effort, Smriti Rana, a palliative care advocate with
Pallium India, and many others, along with cancer survivor, Poonam Bagai,
organised an effort among the caretakers of cervical cancer patients. To
reflect on the importance of mitigating the pain of the loved ones, they shared
this message today.
[Video plays].
VO How
can it be that the first and most effective line of defence against one of the
deadliest and most painful cancers is the simple act of knowing. Cervical
cancer in India is not a disease of only the impoverished. It is a disease of
the unaware.
Privilege and poverty both fall prey to it and
for each life afflicted there are caregivers affected. Stigma around this
cancer leads to silence and the silence is lethal. It claims the lives of more
women than any other cancer. It ravages their bodies and lives in ways
inexplicable. This need not be but it is.
Palliative care can help if only one knew to ask
for it. It is the only kind of cancer in the world today that has not one but
two vaccines that can completely prevent it. It can be easily screened for and,
if caught, can be stopped in its tracks. But, great science without awareness
cannot overcome this. Let’s take back the spaces cervical cancer has claimed.
Let’s honour these faces who are living and dying with it.
[Video ends].
01:43:40
RF The
message indicated two HPV vaccines but as we noted earlier in the press
conference there are more options globally. We’ll now move to the Southeast
Asia region where, Sutapa Biswas, at Cancer Foundation of India, shares an
update on some of the progress made in and around Kolkata in this first year
and Dr Neerja Bhatla, a member of the Director-General’s Expert Group for
Cervical Cancer Elimination will share some of exciting activities happening
today for the Day of Action.
[Video plays].
VO How
can it be that the first and most effective line of defence against one of the
deadliest and most painful cancers is the simple act of knowing. Cervical
cancer in India is not a disease of only the impoverished. It is a disease of…
RF Shall
we proceed? Okay. We’ll return to this. So, to continue, it’s now my great
pleasure to introduce an extraordinary champion for women and children all
around the world, four-time Grammy Award winner and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador,
Angélique Kidjo.
01:45:19
AK Excellencies,
Minister, and everyone joining from around the world. One year ago, we were
together for a historic moment when the world committed to eliminate cervical
cancer and to stand up for women’s health. This is a time to remind each other
of how important is it to say the course.
I am encouraged by the day of action today in
countries all over the world, even during the pandemic, and I salute the brave
cervical cancer survivors who have shared their stories and advocated for their
sisters, women like Karen, Masuzgyo, Eve, Nanthini, Kanshan, Obiageli.
This has also been a hard year. The pandemic has
prolonged many disruptions to health services, to livelihoods, to schools. It
is a further injustice that the tools to stop the pandemic have not been shared
equitably with many African countries. When it comes to women’s health, that is
especially troubling. Even before COVID, of the 20 countries with the highest
burden of cervical cancer…
RF Okay.
We’ll continue to West Africa, starting with a cervical cancer awareness
campaign that’s taking place. Are we ready? Okay. We’ll come back. In the
meantime, let’s continue to West Africa, where several cancer awareness
campaigns have been taking place over the past few days, including today, and
one campaign in Ouagadougou’s main market, where the ministry and several
partners of the SUCCESS consortium have been mobilising efforts.
[Video plays].
So, we’re encouraging our mothers, sisters to
get screened very regularly. Screening is important. Since around 2016, screening
has become free and treatment of pre-cancerous cells. This is a cancer which
evolves slowly over time. It takes 15 to 20 years to become truly cancerous,
which is why we can avoid it.
01:48:43
As a project that we’ve rolled out to eliminate
cervical cancer, we’ve focused on specific regions, and we’re conducting this
project very well. What we do is we try to identify the virus which leads to
the cancer. That’s HPV. Good communication is very critical, clear
communication. So, we try to communicate with women where women are to be
found, out in the streets, and at busy places where women congregate. Our
results are positive. Many associations are onboard. With the support and help
of our partners and the International Union Against Cancer, we have a coalition
to lead this project.
This is the team from the Cervical Cancer
Prevention and Training Centre in Catholic Hospital Battor, Ghana. We are happy
to celebrate with the World Health Organization the first anniversary of the
launch of the strategy to eliminate cervical cancer. We would like to use this
opportunity to demonstrate to the whole world that it is possible to use
current technology to reach out to women in the most deprived communities in
the world. We shall be using current technology, like cell sampling for HPV DNA
testing, mobile colposcopy, and thermal ablation to demonstrate that it is
possible to reach out to these women.
[Video ends].
01:51:34
[Video plays].
In 2020, on November 17, the WHO launched its
elimination of cervical cancer strategy, and this year for the commemoration of
that launch, we’re doing a series of programmes, and this meeting is one of
those such programmes, all aimed at achieving the aim of that WHO elimination
strategy. The vision is a world where cervical cancer is eliminated as a public
health problem.
If the person is screened and you are able to
detect either the HPV or the pre-cancerous changes that are occurring, you can
actually treat the one who has it from that point, thereby eliminating the
chance of her developing cervical cancer. As stakeholders, your write in here
is very important to ensure our children get vaccinated and are protected from
not only cervical cancer but from other HPV cancers. Prevention and early
detection of cancer remains the best chance of survival.
[Video ends].
RF And,
now we’ll return to Angélique Kidjo, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
AK Excellencies,
ministers, and everyone joining from around the world. One year ago, we were
together for an historic moment when the world committed to eliminate cervical
cancer and to stand up for women’s health. This is the time to remind each
other of how important it is to stay the course. I am encouraged by the Day of
Action today in countries all over the world, even during the pandemic. And I
salute the brave cervical cancer survivors who have shared their stories and
advocate for their sisters. Women like Karen, Masuzgyo, Eve, Nanthini, Kanshan,
and Obiageli.
01:54:49
This has also been a hard year. The pandemic has
prolonged many disruptions to health services, to livelihoods, to schools. It
is a further injustice that the tools to stop the pandemic have not been shared
equitably with many African countries. When it comes to women’s health, that is
especially troubling. Even before COVID, of the 20 countries with the highest
burden of cervical cancer, 19 of them were already in Africa.
We cannot allow disparities to widen even more.
Eliminating cervical cancer means fighting back. It means rejecting the status
quo where women in Africa continue carrying the heaviest burden of cervical
cancer. Rejecting the notion that African girls have less access to the HPV
vaccine, rejecting a world where women in Africa are screened for cancer with
lower quality techniques, even when high-performance tests are available in the
global North.
This is not just a dream. A higher standard of
health is attainable. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that all
human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. This movement is
about women’s rights. It is about restoring women’s dignity, and it is about
giving all girls a future free from the one cancer we have the tools to
eliminate. We’re just getting started. And now, I’m happy to take you to the
countries in Africa where today communities are mobilising efforts for cervical
cancer elimination.
01:56:31
[Video plays].
UF Muraho.
Warm greetings from Rwanda. Over the past year, Rwanda has worked to increase
access to cervical cancer screening with HPV DNA testing and visual inspection
with acetic acid, as well as treatment of pre-cancerous lesions through
training of healthcare providers at hospitals and health centres.
The facilities have been equipped with treatment
devices and electronic patient tracking tools. Furthermore, community health
workers have been trained to conduct demand generation activities and follow-up
of women with pending clinic visits. With the increase in cervical cancer
screening and treatment service availability in the country, we have been able
to screen 177,000 women and treated 87% of the women who were eligible for
treatment.
To commemorate the first anniversary of the
Elimination Strategy launch, we are conducting screening activities in all
health facilities in Rusizi District and cervical cancer awareness through
billboards, radio talk shows, and a broadcasted screening of Ministry of Health
and Rwanda Biomedical Centre personnel.
This year has taught us that the elimination of
cervical cancer requires a multisectoral approach. Going into the second year
towards elimination, we will focus on expanding access to cervical cancer
screening and treatment of pre-cancerous lesions to all districts across the
country and improving access to quality management for women with invasive
cancer. Thank you. Murabeho. Goodbye.
01:58:17
MN My
name is Dr Mary Nyangasi. I head the National Cancer Control programme in
Kenya. Kenya has embraced the call to eliminate cervical cancer as a public
health problem, and we are working towards achieving the target set by WHO. So
far, we have a national vaccination programme that is targeting girls 10 to 14
years, and we are working towards improving this coverage further.
We also are training our healthcare workers on
screening and treatment of pre-cancerous lesions. We have provided these
healthcare workers with treatment devices. We have trained nearly 6,000
healthcare workers on cervical cancer this year alone. We are also training our
community health volunteers on cervical cancer and teaching them about the cell
sampling techniques using the HPV kit so they are able to educate our women in
their communities and provide them with these kits for screening in the comfort
of their homes.
UF Today,
November 17, marks the first anniversary of the launch of the cervical cancer
strategy on the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem.
Malawi joins the world in this commemoration. In light of our commitment that
we made in 2020, Malawi revised its cervical cancer strategy, which will run
from 2022 to 2026.
02:00:00
In that strategy, we have advocated for
increased allocation of resources. Also, there’s been expansion of screening
and treatment of cervical cancer. We also have started implementing the Human
Papilloma Virus screening, and this is being done in 13 of these facilities,
but we have more facilities, and we need to keep on scaling this initiative.
There’s been task shifting of the large loop
excision of the transformation zone – LLETZ -- which we have expanded from
tertiary facilities to secondary facilities in collaboration with our partners,
CHAI, Health Policy Plus, and the Association of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists of Malawi, AOGM. We’ve developed a curriculum on this, and we
have trained over 29 clinicians across the country. With this effort, we
believe there is going to be an increase in terms of screening, but also
management of the large lesions. So, women are going to access this self-test and
we’ll reduce the burden of cervical cancer. I thank you for your attention.
[Video ends].
RF In
this inaugural year of the Global Effort to Eliminate Cervical Cancer, the
Commonwealth and UICC launched the International Task Force on Cervical Cancer
Elimination in the Commonwealth. The Task Force is committed to engaging youth.
They’re a critical part of this effort. So, to highlight their role, we’ll now
go to just a short message from Gideon Gachihi, a youth representative of the
Task Force who shared this message from Kenya today.
Okay, we can proceed in that case while they
resolve the technical difficulty, and we can move on to the activities in the
European region. We’ll start in Europe also with some young advocates. They are
organizing around today’s Day of Action, and they formed a youth group of
teenagers to mobilize around HPV awareness and cervical cancer elimination. To
Europe.
02:03:05
[Video plays].
CE Hi
everyone. My name is Celine, and I’m the leader of Engage Teens. My personal
goal within this youth organisation is to de-stigmatise sexual health, as well
as taking an active role in our education and knowledge about HPV and cervical
cancer. Our involvement is so important because we believe that teenagers will
listen and care more if they see that members of their own generation are
concerned about these topics. For example, my friends take cervical cancer so
much more seriously since I’ve shared the steps I’ve taken in my health to
prevent it. For example, getting the HPV vaccine. We encourage you to get the
youths’ voices in your countries more active in this conversation because we feel
that just eliminating one cancer can be the beginning of the end to all
cancers.
MA Hi,
I’m Magda, and I’m from Hungary. Happy Cervical Cancer Elimination Day. In the
one year since WHO has launched Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative, an
organisation called Engage Teens has been launched in Europe to advocate for
knowledge about HPV and cervical cancer prevention. I find involving teens
crucial because the sooner we start prevention, the more effective it will be.
This is a huge step for cervical cancer eradication because now we are getting
involved in promoting awareness and starting conversations as the next
generation. We are now taking an active role in enacting change for ourselves
and our friends so that in the future, we can say that we beat cervical cancer.
02:04:34
CZ Dear
Dr Tedros, dear Princess Nono, dear activists from all over the world. This is
a very important day. Today, we celebrate the one-year anniversary of the first
global commitment ever to eliminate cervical cancer. Thank you, Dr Tedros, for
your strong commitment to women’s health. Thank you very much for your strong
commitment against cervical cancer. As you know, I share the same commitment
and the same ambition as you. As a gynaecologist, as an activist, but also as a
Member of the European Parliament.
On behalf of my dear friends, some good news to
share with you from Europe. In the past year, we have made two ambitious
commitments: firstly, to vaccinate 90%
of girls against HPV by 2030, and, of course, to increase also the vaccination
of boys. And secondly, to offer screening to 90% of European women who must
continue to support the WHO and all the partner countries to achieve the global
strategy.
Every country, every region, every continent,
all together, we can beat cervical cancer. We have nine years ahead of us. We
have all the elements to be successful. Qualified doctors and nurses, patients,
survivors, researchers, advocates, and fundraisers. We have the medical tools.
Now we have a very, very strong political commitment. So, let’s work together,
my friends. This is a fight for women’s health, and this is a fight for women’s
rights.
02:06:25
RF We’ll
now return to the message from Gideon, the young clinician in Kenya from the
Commonwealth Task Force who has been working on youth activism around cervical
cancer elimination.
[Video plays].
GG My
name is Gideon Gachihi. I’m a Kenyan youth. I am also a clinician here. I am
also privileged to be a member of the Commonwealth Cervical Cancer Task Force,
where I am involved in advocacy and advocating for more programmes towards the
fight against cervical cancer. So, as a youth, together with my group, who are
based in Kenya, we are mainly involved in activities such as sexualisation of
women against cervical cancer.
We are also actively involved in the process of
administration of vaccines in young ladies. We are clinicians and privileged to
be involved in the treatment of cervical cancer patients. We come together, as
we committed to this here today, the fight against cervical cancer. So,
together we’ll fight cervical cancer.
[Video ends].
RF Okay. We’ll now continue to move across
the world and see some of the activities that have been happening in the
Americas region, where some of the submissions are sharing a look at what’s
happening today, on the Day of Action, and also a look back at a few of the
highlights during this inaugural year in countries in the Americas.
02:08:21
[Video plays].
JF We
are very proud of the efforts done by the WHO. We have inaugurated the first
Centre to fight cervical cancer. This is a comprehensive Centre for cancer. So,
we’re trying to have communities across the hemisphere to eliminate this
cancer. In order to commemorate this day, we will continue our work in order to
support free activities, awareness-raising activities. The work has just begun,
and we are absolutely committed to eliminating cervical cancer.
CE I’m
Craig Earle, CEO of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer. The Canadian
Partnership Against Cancer is excited to be celebrating the first year of this
historic global commitment to eliminate a cancer. Last year, we launched
Canada’s Action Plan to Eliminate Cervical Cancer in conjunction with the
global strategy. The Action Plan is Canada’s road map to improve HPV
immunisation rates, transition to HPV primary screening, and enhanced follow-up
practices. Efforts to implement the action plan are now underway.
Over the past year, the majority of provinces in
Canada have initiated plans to move from Pap testing to HPV primary screening,
with the option of self-collection, making screening programmes more effective,
resilient, and easier to access. We’re also working with public health partners
to better identify under-immunised populations and re-design HPV immunisation
programmes, which vary greatly from coast to coast to coast.
02:10:52
Shifts in service delivery are also taking place
in Canada. As one example, our Yukon Territory has expanded access to HPV
immunisation by offering it free in pharmacies to anyone up to the age of 26.
The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer is working with partners across the
country to drive this work forward and is committed to taking action to create
a cervical cancer-free future. To help mark this special occasion, the 3D
Toronto sign behind me, along with other major landmarks in Canada, will be
lilt up in teal later on tonight, so you can keep an eye out for that.
CC I
am Carolina Wiesner, head of the National Institute of Cancerology. In
Colombia, we are committed to eradicate cervical cancer in the long term. We
have included the vaccine within the national immunisation programme, and we
expect to restore our vaccination coverage in this post-pandemic period. We
have the holistic attention guidelines for cervical cancer control that
includes human papilloma virus screening. Several insurers have started this
screening, and, of course, there will be universal access to attention for
women with neoplastic injuries or cancer.
CP My
name is Carlos Humberto Perez Moreno. I am the Director-General of San Jose
Hospital in Bogota and current president of the International Federation of
Colposcopy and Lower Genital Tract Pathology. We work side-by-side with the
National Institute of Cancerology and the Colombian Federation of Obstetrics
and Gynaecology, FECOLSOG, on the issue of preventing cervical cancer.
02:12:56
We have encouraged vaccination against the human
papilloma virus, aiming to reach the levels we had before the pandemic. We have
made a significant effort with our partnerships on this matter, as well as with
everything related with screening molecular tests, which is the screening law
in our country.
It is important that patients know and demand
the test, take it, and, depending on the results, come to us, the
gynaecologists. We provide proper diagnosis and treatment to all pre-neoplastic
diseases to prevent patients from having cervical cancer. So, we are committed
with our country and Latin America through the federations to prevent cervical
cancer. Thank you very much for your attention.
[Foreign language].
[Video ends].
RF We
now have a very short message from Mrs Obiageli, a cervical cancer patient in
Nigeria, which she actually shared with us just a few days ago. So, we’ll go to
listen to her brief message, and then we’ll hear from the Co-Chair of the
Director-General’s Expert Group, Professor Groesbeck Parham, who is with us
live on the line following this clip. Thank you.
[Video plays].
MO [Foreign
language].
[Video ends].
02:16:46
RF The
Co-Chair of the Director-General’s Expert Group, Professor Groesbeck Parham.
The floor is yours.
GP Thank
you, Richard. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and to participate in
this wonderful programme. Women like Obiageli, who we just saw on video, but
who incidentally died from cervical cancer two days ago. Women like her are
still dying by the hundreds of thousands each year, and in her own words, which
maybe you didn’t hear, in her own words, before she transitioned, I think she
provides us with wise counsel, and I quote, this is what she said I’m calling
on other women, I’m calling on other people to come together to help ourselves.
If we fight it, we will survive. And, I’ll repeat that. She said, I’m calling
on other women. I’m calling on other people to come together to help ourselves.
If we fight it, we will survive.”
I think if there’s one thing we have not
emphasised enough in the fight to eliminate cervical cancer is that we, and I
count myself among the we because I’ve been living and working in Zambia for
almost the past 20 years fighting against this disease. If there’s one thing we
have not emphasised enough in the fight to eliminate cervical cancer is that
we, as workers on the front line of cancer care in high disease-burdened
countries, have spent too much time looking outside of ourselves for solutions
rather than looking within ourselves.
02:18:54
We know we have weak health infrastructures, but
as healthcare workers, we can do some of the work, a large part of the work to
strengthen these healthcare infrastructures. We can train one another. There
are not many of us, for instance, on the continent of Africa, who know how to
perform radical surgical procedures for women with early-stage cancers,
cervical cancers, but there are enough of us, there are enough of nurses who
now are experts in cervical cancer screening to train other nurses.
We can establish regional centres of radiation
therapy. Every country does not necessarily need to have a radiation therapy
centre. That has failed, and it will probably always fail because the equipment
is too expensive to purchase and too expensive to keep up, but we can come
together as healthcare workers in these countries and establish regional
centres of radiation therapy.
We can also come together and organise ourselves
and generate some of the resources that we need to actually build hospitals and
build clinics that we need, instead of always looking outside for donors to do
so. We understand the culture, and we know how to increase demand for screening
women among women and among men. We can also form organisations of front-line
providers, doctors, nurses, etc, to go to pharmaceutical companies and other
corporations, and ourselves lobby for vaccines at lower prices and other
equipment and supplies that we need to provide the services for women and girls
in our countries.
Women’s groups, men’s groups, church groups,
etc, these are local organisations I’m talking about in each country, need to
look within their own organisations and find ways to initiate the types of
activities that will help lead to the expansion of the services that we need to
eliminate this disease.
02:21:18
So, my call is her call, that we need to look
within ourselves, that the women in the countries and across the globe need to
stand up for their sisters with our help, our assistance. But we need to look
within for many of the solutions and do more ourselves instead of looking
without. Thank you.
RF Thank
you, Prof. To close out the day, we now have a very special performance from
some of Ireland’s toughest cancer warriors, the Sea of Change Choir. This group
of women cancer survivors are even in the Guinness Book of World Records for
their extraordinary advocacy. Let’s go now to the RTE News Studio in Dublin,
Ireland, from where they’ll be sending their message.
EI Greetings
from Dublin, Ireland, where, in a few moments, you will hear a wonderful
performance from the Sea of Change Choir. This choir is made up of a group of
very brave Irish women who’ve been affected by cancer and, for the past few
years, they’ve been performing all around Ireland, raising awareness of cancer
and raising almost one million euro to help fight childhood cancer. They’ve
even performed in the European Parliament. Along the way, these women have been
an inspiration for so many cancer patients, survivors, and advocates, and we
congratulate them and thank them for all their efforts.
02:22:58
Sea of Change Choir is delighted to be part of
the World Health Organization’s Global Effort to Eliminate Cervical Cancer,
which affects nearly 600,000 women every year. Today, this amazing group of
women, directed by Ian Brabazon, will perform the very aptly titled Times Are
Tough, But So Are We, written by Irish songwriter, Paddy Casey. I’ll hand you
over now to Deirdre Featherstone, one of the founding members of Sea of Change.
DF Thanks,
Eileen. Welcome to the Sea of Change Choir, a choir full of cancer supporters
and survivors. We are so humbled to be with you here tonight. A few years ago,
on Ireland’s Got Talent, our 44 members in the choir, with 79-1/2 boobs, bared
all, showed our scars and said, this is the moment, that this is me. So, today
we are so honoured to be talking to the world, and we want to say no more, and
we really remember our three girls that we’ve lost in the last year within our
choir. Thank you so much, and I hope you enjoy the performance.
[Video plays].
[Choir sings].
[Video ends].
NS A
stunning end to a beautiful day. I hope we take inspiration from the Sea of
Change, from all the advocates that we had speaking today, and we continue in
our own little way to move the needle forward. WHO has done a lot, but there’s
much more we can do. So, I just want to say thank you to everybody who’s been
watching, to the advocates, to every effort that’s gone into this anniversary.
The women, the girls, and the world will acknowledge your work. Thank you very
much.