COVID-19 as a catalyst for reimagining cervical cancer prevention.

Cervical cancer has killed millions of women over the past decade. In 2019 the World Health Organization launched the Cervical Cancer Elimination Strategy, which included ambitious targets for vaccination, screening, and treatment. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted progress on the strategy, but lessons learned during the pandemic - especially in vaccination, self-administered testing, and coordinated mobilization on a global scale - may help with efforts to achieve its targets. However, we must also learn from the failure of the COVID-19 response to include adequate representation of global voices. Efforts to eliminate cervical cancer will only succeed if those countries most affected are involved from the very start of planning. In this article we summarize innovations and highlight missed opportunities in the COVID response, and make recommendations to leverage the COVID experience to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer globally.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

RL received a grant from NIH NCI 1K08CA271949-01. The author has no other competing interests to declare, SF received grants from NCI/NIH and the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, and has received royalties from Uptodate. They have received payment for post-graduate talks at the Indian Health Service and Harvard Medical School, and for a community talk at Team Maureen. They received support for attending meetings of the ASCCP and the American Cancer Society. The author participated on the Mitre CDC sponsored initiative to integrate cervical cancer screening results into EHR and the American Cancer Society Advisory Committee ACS Cervical Cancer Roundtable. They are a Board Member of the IPVS and co-chair for ACS. The author has no other competing interests to declare, YW is a committee member for policy as part of IPVS. The author has no other competing interests to declare, AM has received from consulting fees from the Merck Advisory Board. The author participated on a Data Safety Monitoring Board/Advisory Board for CVIA 087 DSMB funded by PATH, and is an International Papillomavirus Society Board member. The author has no other competing interests to declare, AG has received grants and consulting fees from Merck & Co, Inc No other competing interests to declare, Sd is a consultant at the National Cancer Institute (NIH, United States). No other competing interests to declare, AK has received grants from the EU EUROSTARS Program; has received payment for consultation from Paul-Ehrlich Gesellschaft e.V; has been issued with patent WO 2020/161285 A1 (Inventor); member of the Data Safety Monitoring Board/Advisory Board for the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). No other competing interests to declare, SL, FG, NB No competing interests declared, KC member of Hong Kong SAR cancer coordinating committee (advisory board ) and the HK SAR cancer expert working group; President of the Hong Kong College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists; council member of the Asian Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ASGO); board member for the Asia-Oceania Research Organisation in Genital Infection and Neoplasia. No other competing interests to declare, MS Has received consulting fees from MSD Merck UK; has participated in a Global Advisory Board for HPV vaccines for Merck. No other competing interests to declare, JB has received donated HPV tests and swabs for validation and research from Cepheid, Abbott, Seegene, Roche, AusDiagnostics, BD, and Copan. No other competing interests to declare, JP has received grants from Merck & Co., Roche Diagnostics, Antiva Biosciences, Vir Biotechnologies and Virion Therapeutics; has received consulting fees from Merck & Co., Roche Diagnostics, Antiva Biosciences and Vir Biotechnologies; has received payment for consultation from Gilead Pharmaceuticals, Merck & Co. and Janssen Pharmaceuticals; has received support for attending meetings from Merck & Co. and Roche Diagnostics; participates on the Data Safety Monitoring Board/Advisory Board for the IPVS; is Chair of the International HPV Awareness Day Campaign; has stock or stock options in Virion Therapeutics; has received resources/services from Atila Biosystems. No other competing interests to declare, SG has received consulting fees and lecture fees from Merck; has participated in an advisory Board for Merck; is President of the International Papillomavirus Society; has received an education grant for a study of HPV in young women. No other competing interests to declare