January marked as Cervical Cancer Awareness Month

The MENA Coalition for HPV Elimination hosted a webinar on January 18, marking January as Cervical Cancer Awareness Month and highlighting the engagement of civil society that is needed to eliminate this preventable disease.

The main focus of the webinar, which was moderated by Dr Ibtihal Fadhi, chair at Eastern Mediterranean NCD Alliance, former regional adviser NCDS, WHO/EMRO, was on the important role of civil society and non-governmental organisations in supporting cervical cancer elimination across the region, a press release said.

Speakers addressed a variety of topics, including best practices around increasing uptake of HPV vaccination, challenges to overcome key barriers (including stigma and vaccine hesitancy), progress made towards the elimination of HPV and cervical cancer, and WHO EMRO’S recently-launched Regional

Cervical Cancer Elimination Strategy.

Dr Mohammed Afifi, regional advisor for Women’s Health, WHO EMRO, highlighted the crucial role of civil society in supporting governments around cervical cancer elimination, namely around increasing awareness and vaccine uptake across the region. “We need to improve the public’s knowledge of screening measures and the vaccine's importance, as many people do not know about the vaccine at all,” he affirmed.

“Lebanon is facing many challenges: vaccine hesitancy, false information, and the high vaccine cost. WISH and some other NGOS are collaborating to improve uptake in women for the vaccine doses via university,” said Dr Faysal el Kak, senior lecturer at the Faculty of Health Sciences, AUB.OVER these last ten years, many initiatives have taken place toward eliminating cervical cancer in the region.