UICC Special Focus Dialogue: Increasing access to screening and treatment to prevent cervical cancer

A Special Focus Dialogue with cancer, HIV and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) civil society organisations in partnership with World Health Organization (WHO), Human Reproduction Programme (HRP), UNAIDS and 4GF - Women in all their diversity for the Global Fund

Agenda

0:00 Introductions by Alessandro Di Capua, Senior Manager, Capacity Building, UICC
3:00 Brief overview of the session goals and introduction of the speakers by Julie Torode, Director, Special Projects UICC
7:11 Understand the current status of WHO’s global cervical cancer elimination strategy, resolution - Princess Nono Simelela
11:58 Gain global perspective on next steps, particularly with reflections on engaging all women and in achieving the elimination ambition and the new context of COVID-19 by Ian Askew, Meg Doherty and Benda Kithaka
Gain understanding of the WHO screening and treatment
30:57 Gain understanding of the WHO screening and treatment guidelines, the process, timelines and how to survey on women's perspectives feeds in, by Nathalie Broutet
48:40 Summary of WHO’s efforts to understand the contribution of HIV to cervical cancer burden and elimination, and consideration of women living with HIV in the guidelines, by Morkor Newman-Owiredu
53:15 Presentation of the role of client perspectives in the guideline process and examples of how they have influenced other guidelines and/or WHO guidance, by Manjulaa Narasimhan
1:01:39 Interactive discussion, initiated by advocates on women’s perspectives on cervical health and screening – Mara Kumbweza and Gertrude Nakigudde, moderated by Ani Shakarishivili
1:27:21 Overview of global survey to understand women’s experiences and preferences for cervical cancer screening and treatment, survey timelines, languages available and how to access, by Ajay Rangaraj
1:41:53 Quick training – do and don’ts of assisting women’s access to the questionnaires
1:45:32 Closing remarks from partners

July 2020 will see a landmark adoption of the WHO Global Strategy towards the elimination of cervical cancer, a commitment to women's health and cancer prevention set to inspire cancer advocates as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to save millions of women’s lives.

A key driver for its success is the roll-out of national-level screening and treatment services, using high performance human papillomavirus (HPV) testing. This new technology, and associated innovations such as self-sampling, thermal ablation for treatment of early precancers and e-health solutions, have the potential to revolutionise screening services by facilitating their integration with HIV-AIDS and sexual and reproductive service delivery platforms, offering women more health choices in the community with women at the heart of these services.

In this Special Focus Dialogue, cancer, HIV and SRHR advocates came together to:

Hear an update on the progress of the WHO Global Strategy through the World Health Assembly
Discuss the impact of COVID-19 on cervical cancer prevention and control services and planning for rapid recovery
Explore women’s perspectives on cervical health, screening and treatment with civil society groups from the cancer, HIV-AIDS and SRHR fields
Learn about WHO's new screening guidelines, and the rationale and process for the update
Explore how to join the global effort by helping to bring the views of women from their communities to inform the new recommendations