Urgent action needed to help eliminate cervical cancer in Aotearoa

Reposted with permission – Public Health Communication Centre Aotearoa (PHCC)

In 2020, Aotearoa New Zealand signed up to the World Health Organization’s goal of eliminating cervical cancer as a public health problem. In the intervening four years, some promising progress has been made, but New Zealand still has a long way to go to meet the 2030 targets and eliminate the cancer as a public health problem.

“Elimination is possible because almost all cases of cervical cancer are caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). We have the tools now to prevent cervical cancer through HPV vaccination, HPV primary screening and treatment of abnormal cervical cell changes. If all women and people with a cervix can access these three things, cervical cancer will be eliminated in NZ within the lifetime of today’s children.”

The current barriers to elimination include: low coverage of cervical screening, particularly among Asian, Māori, and Pacific peoples; low coverage of the HPV vaccination; and lack of an elimination strategy and dedicated funding. 

NGOs (including Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa), researchers, and the public, are calling on the Government to take action now to help create a future where almost no one in NZ dies from cervical cancer.  

This action includes: 

• A fully funded, equitable Aotearoa Cervical Cancer Elimination Strategy
• Extending free cervical screening to all who are eligible
• Urgently increasing access to HPV vaccination among school children to reach uptake of 90%

A new campaign launched mid-November by The Cancer Society, Hei Āhuru Mōwai, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and Te Tātai Hauora o Hine (National Centre for Women’s Health Research Aotearoa) invites New Zealanders to ‘help write the book on defeating cervical cancer.’ The interactive website invites people to add their names, which will be presented in a finished book to the Government.