Australia set to become first country to eliminate cervical cancer

SYDNEY: Australia is set to become the first country in the world to eradicate cervical cancer, thanks to a wide-scale vaccination campaign and improvements made to the National Cervical Screening Programme.

“What we’re seeing now is the vaccination which began in 2007, just beginning to have its impact on younger women, who would otherwise be in the group that might be first developing cervical cancer,” Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt told ABC radio yesterday.

Xinhua news agency reported that according to Cancer Council of New South Wales (NSW) State, its research indicated that if the current rate of screenings and vaccinations were maintained, the deadly disease was likely to be wiped out within 20 years.

The council predicts that less than six in 100,000 women will contract cervical cancer by 2022, with that number set to drop further by 2035, to just four in 100,000.

“This is such exciting news for women across Australia,” director of Research at the Cancer Council NSW, Professor Karen Canfell said in a statement.

“We’ve been leading the way in cervical cancer control for many years and will be sharing our research and approaches with the rest of the world as part of a global push to eliminate this highly preventable cancer.”

With Sydney playing host to the International Papilloma Virus Conference this week, Canfell will now present the findings of the Cancer Council’s research to her counterparts in the global medical community in the hope of kick-starting similar programmes.

What we’re seeing now is the vaccination which began in 2007, just beginning to have its impact on younger women, who would otherwise be in the group that might be first developing cervical cancer. Greg Hunt, Australian Health Minister