Marking one year since the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a global commitment to eliminate cervical cancer, the Australian Government is investing $5.8 million to back our pledge to be the first nation in the world to achieve this goal.
\nThe National Cervical Screening Program encourages a simple five-yearly test (changed from every two years in 2017) that checks for HPV \u2013 a common infection that causes almost all cervical cancers \u2013 before any cancerous cells develop.
\nMinister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt, said this program had been a game-changer in Australia\u2019s efforts to eliminate cervical cancer.
\n\u201cIn the program\u2019s 30 years it has halved the incidence of cervical cancer and mortality in Australia,\u201d Minister Hunt said.
\n\u201cWe however do not rest on our laurels, there is more work to be done. Our Government continues to work to ensure as many people as possible engage with the support available, particularly by ensuring access and equity in under-screened groups.\u201d
\n\u201cThe funding announced today will support the Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer to collaboratively develop a National Cervical Cancer Elimination Strategy by the end of 2022 to help us ensure our goal of eliminating cervical cancer as a public health concern is met by 2035.\u201d
\nThe Strategy will require coordinated efforts throughout the health system to overcome cultural and structural barriers to cervical cancer prevention programs and treatment, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other under-screened populations.
\nThe funding will also support Australia\u2019s largest clinical trial, the Compass Trial, which will produce world-first evidence on the interactions between HPV vaccination and HPV-based screening. The trial will inform improvements to the National Cervical Screening Program to ensure participants continue to receive the right care.
\nMinister for Foreign Affairs and Women, Marise Payne, said Australia was committed to the WHO\u2019s elimination strategy by championing and leading the resolution on the Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer.
\n\u201cWe are committed to continued support for this and other global initiatives on cervical cancer elimination,\u201d Minister Payne said.
\n\u201cAustralia\u2019s HPV vaccination program and National Cervical Screening Program are world-leading and have put us on track to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035.\u201d
\nDeveloped at the University of Queensland, the introduction of the HPV vaccine (Gardasil) onto Australia\u2019s National Immunisation Program was a world first, and will help to protect young people from getting a range of HPV-related cancers and diseases, such as cervical cancer. Since 2012-13, we have spent close to $386 million on HPV vaccines and distributed around 6.4 million doses.
\nThe introduction in July 2022 of self-collection for cervical screening tests, announced on 8 November 2021 is expected to encourage many more women to take the test by making the process easier, more comfortable and less invasive.
\nAustralia will be one of the first countries in the world to offer the \u2018game-changing\u2019 self-collect option through our National Cervical Screening Program.
\nEnsuring access and equity in the prevention, early detection and treatment of cervical cancer will be central to reach the WHO elimination targets in Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marking one year since the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a global commitment to eliminate cervical cancer, the Australian Government is investing $5.8 million to back our pledge to be the first nation in the world to achieve this goal. The National Cervical Screening Program encourages a simple five-yearly test (changed from every two years … Continue reading “Australia backs commitment to lead world in eliminating cervical cancer”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}