Cervical Cancer Screening

South Africa's screening programme prevented an estimated 8,600 cervical cancer cases between 2000 and 2019. Low hrHPV prevalence could make national self-sampling resource-efficient by limiting follow-up to a small proportion of screened women. Gabon recorded the lowest cervical cancer screening unmet need at 84.7%, more than 10 percentage points below any other country in the study. AYA cancer survivors were substantially more likely to have initiated cervical cancer screening by age 25, with rates of 68.1% versus 55.4% in cancer-free peers. Cancer survivors had their first cervical smear at a slightly younger mean age (26.3 years) compared to cancer-free peers (26.6 years). VIA results are available immediately at the first visit, whereas Pap smear and HPV DNA test results require a two-week wait and a second visit. The study evaluates 24 organised screening strategies, produced by crossing six modalities with four screening intervals, all compared against the current unorganised screening scenario. WHO recommends HPV-based screening over VIA because HPV testing has higher sensitivity and negative predictive value. For HIV-negative women, South African policy recommends three l…