EU urged to increase efforts to combat cervical cancer

MEPs have thrown their weight behind a petition aimed at cutting the rising death toll of cervical cancer.

The petition has already been signed by 100,000 people but the three deputies behind the move have set a target of 1 million signatures.

Slovenian health minister Zofija Mazej Kukovic, whose country holds the EU presidency, and numerous MEPs were among those who signed the petition at its formal launch in parliament on Tuesday.

The three MEPs involved in the ‘Stop Cervical Cancer’ petition are British member Glenis Willmott, Jolanta Dickute, from Lithuania and French member Francoise Grossetete.

Willmott said the aim of the petition was to encourage all EU countries to adopt cervical cancer screening programmes.

“In the UK, we have a well established programme but in other countries it is non-existent,” she said.

The petition was timed to coincide with the ‘European Cervical Cancer’ summit in Brussels on Tuesday, which each of the three MEPs helped to organise.

The one day event heard that every year in Europe, 50,000 women develop and 25,000 women die from cervical cancer.

Meanwhile, a report from the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), says that vaccination of adolescent girls is an effective strategy against cervical cancer.

The report, published on Tuesday, says member states should consider giving all girls aged between 10 and 15 a newly-developed vaccine against the Human Papillomaviurs (HPV).

Speaking at the summit, Prof Johan Giesecke, the ECDC’s chief scientist, said that two strains of the virus, types 16 and 18, were responsible for some 73 per cent of cervical cancer cases in Europe.

He told this website that vaccination against these strains could cut the rate of cervical cancer by as much as 93 per cent.

However, he stressed that a “strong” emphasis on national screening programmes must be maintained.

• Previous article
• Next article