World Bank, UN, Gates foundation pledge nearly $600 million to eliminate cervical cancer

Global health donors have pledged a substantial sum of nearly $600 million to combat cervical cancer, marking the first-ever global forum solely dedicated to eradicating this disease.

The World Bank, along with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and UNICEF, issued a joint statement, outlining their commitment to utilizing these funds for the expansion of worldwide access to vaccination, screening, and treatment.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), emphasized that despite possessing the knowledge and tools to eliminate cervical cancer, existing programs are not yet operating at the necessary scale.

The Global Cervical Cancer Elimination forum, hosted in Cartagena, Colombia, serves as a pivotal platform for change, fostering commitments from governments and global health partners to collaboratively address and ultimately end this disease.

Cervical cancer claims a woman’s life approximately every two minutes, with a staggering 90% of these cases occurring in low and middle-income countries.