President Edgar Lungu has appealed to pharmaceutical industries to consider lowering the price of HPV vaccines to enable countries like Zambia to increase cervical cancer immunisation coverage. During a high-level meeting on the elimination of cervical cancer, on the sidelines of the 73rd Session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, President Lungu said pharmaceutical companies also need to make the cost of chemotherapy drugs cheaper.

He said Zambia has one of the world’s highest rates of invasive cervical cancer incidence at 58 per 100,000 and mortality rate at 36 per 100,000 per year. Flanked by Minister of Health Chitalu Chilufya, President Lungu said cervical cancer is the commonest cancer in Zambia, accounting for over 30 percent of all new cases recorded annually.

The President said Zambia also has a high rate of HIV, at 12.4 percent, noting that the correlation of cervical cancer and HIV is well documented. “Therefore, for us elimination of cervical cancer is a priority. The key to control cervical cancer is a balanced approach with emphasis on health promotion, disease prevention, screening, early detection backed by a strong system of treatment, rehabilitative and palliative care.

These services should be accessible by all,” he said. Mr Lungu also said countries which bear the largest brunt of the disease burden also face logistical, financial, structural and social challenges in providing comprehensive cervical cancer control. “For us to win this fight, huge

President Lungu was confident that the meeting would culminate into renewed commitments to the cervical cancer elimination challenge.
He recalled that during the 71st World Health Assembly, Dr Ghebreyesus made a global call for action on elimination of cervical cancer.
“We applaud WHO for making this bold global call for action. This calls for development of a comprehensive strategy that will include acceleration of scaling up HPV vaccination, expanding screening coverage, early detection, prompt management, access to palliative care, and monitoring and evaluation,” President Lungu said.

Every year, cervical cancer affects over half a million, and kills a quarter of a million in the same period, the President said.
Further, 34 out of every 100,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and 23 out of every 100,000 women die from the ailment every year in sub-Saharan Africa.