The World Health Organization
on Tuesday launched a strategy to eliminate cervical cancer, with the idea at
the forefront being that a broad use of vaccines, new tests and treatments
could save at least five million lives by 2050, AFP reported.

“Eliminating any
cancer would have once seemed like an impossible dream, but now we have the
cost-effective, evidence-based tools to make that dream a reality,” AFP quoted WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to be saying in a press briefing.

With half a million
people being diagnosed with the disease each year and hundreds of thousands of
women dying from it, WHO warns that with inaction, the numbers would rise in the
coming years.

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Cervical cancer – caused by the Human Papillomavirus
(HPV), a common sexually transmitted health hazard, is preventable with vaccine
as well as curable, if diagnosed at an early stage and treated properly.

All the 194 member-countries have agreed to a plan towards eliminating the cancer in the annual-meeting held last week.

According to WHO’s forecasts, if unchecked, the total
number of cases in the world could jump from 570,000 in 2018 to 700,000 by
2030, wherein number of deaths, during the same period, could increase from
311,000 to 400,000.

WHO Assistant Director-General Princess Nothemba
Simelela said at a virtual press briefing that this was a huge milestone.

“For the first time the world has agreed to eliminate
the only cancer we can prevent with a vaccine, and the only cancer which is
curable if detected early,” she further said.

Simelela also stressed that there were twice as
many cases and thrice as many deaths from the disease mainly in the lower and
middle-income countries as opposed to wealthier nations, as doses of vaccines
have proven to be far more expensive, and thus less accessible, for the former.

The strategy adopted on Tuesday calls for all
member nations to ensure by 2030 vaccination of 90 percent of girls before they
turn 15.

It also calls for at least 70 percent of women being
tested for cervical cancer by the time they reach the age of 35 and again by
45.