Working to prevent cancer
On 4 February, the GAVI Alliance joined its partners to celebrate World Cancer Day and help dispel the myths about cancer, such as the idea that cancer is a non-communicable disease. As many as 1.9 million cancer cases a year are believed to be caused by infections.
Hepatitis B (hepB) vaccine, for example, is more than 50 times more infectious than HIV and a major cause of liver cancer across the globe. As many as two billion people alive today are estimated to have been infected with hepB, while 350 million are chronically infected. More than a quarter of these people will go on to develop liver cancer or cirrhosis of the liver, which together kill 900,000 people each year.
Similarly, almost all cases of cervical cancer are caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), a common and highly infectious sexually transmitted agent. Of the 275,000 women and girls who die of cervical cancer every year, 85% live in the world’s poorest countries. If left unchecked the number of deaths is expected to rise to 430,000 by 2030.
Since its launch in 2000 GAVI has been working with its partners to protect children from infectious cancers:
HepB vaccine: GAVI support has enabled an additional 330 million children to be vaccinated against hepB
HPV vaccine: on February 4, GAVI approved support for HPV vaccine demonstration programmes in eight countries, with the long-term goal of vaccinating 30 million of the world’s poorest women and girls by 2020.
