SYDNEY, Oct. 3, 2018 (BSS/XINHUA) – Australia is set to become the first
country in the world to eradicate cervical cancer, thanks to a wide-scale
vaccination campaign and improvements made to the National Cervical Screening
Program.
“What we’re seeing now is the vaccinations which began in 2007 just
beginning to have their impact on younger women, who would otherwise be in
the group that might be first developing cervical cancer,” Australian Health
Minister Greg Hunt told ABC radio on Wednesday.
According to Cancer Council of New South Wales State, their research
indicates that if the current rate of screenings and vaccinations are
maintained, the deadly disease is likely to be wiped out within 20 years.
They predict that less than six in 100,000 women will contract cervical
cancer by 2022, with that number set to drop further by 2035, to just four in
100,000.
“This is such exciting news for women across Australia,” Director of
Research at Cancer Council NSW Professor Karen Canfell said in a statement on
Wednesday.
“We’ve been leading the way in cervical cancer control for many years and
we’ll be sharing our research and approaches with the rest of the world as
part of a global push to eliminate this highly preventable cancer.”
With Sydney playing host to the International Papilloma Virus Conference
this week, Canfell will now present the findings of the Cancer Council’s
research to her counterparts in the global medical community in the hope of
kick-starting similar programs in other nations.