Cheap vaccines could prevent millions of deaths from cervical cancer
A turning-point looms in the campaign to eliminate the disease
Alongside ailments resulting from hepatitis B, cervical cancer has a strong claim to be the world’s deadliest vaccine-preventable disease. Most illnesses for which effective vaccines for children are widely available no longer threaten public health. But in 2020, 14 years after the advent of a jab that prevents almost all cases, cervical cancer still killed 342,000 women. If take-up of the vaccine rose—a goal about which there are new grounds for hope—this cancer could be nearly eliminated.
This article appeared in the Graphic detail section of the print edition under the headline “Low-hanging fruit”
From the June 3rd 2023 edition
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