Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Jun 29:35:102291.
doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102291. eCollection 2023 Oct.

The recovery strategies to support cervical cancer elimination in lower-and middle-income countries (LMICs) following COVID-19 disruptions

Jieying Lee  1 , Ida Ismail-Pratt  1   2 , Dorothy A Machalek  3   4 , Suresh Kumarasamy  1   5 , Suzanne M Garland  1   3   6
Affiliations
Review

The recovery strategies to support cervical cancer elimination in lower-and middle-income countries (LMICs) following COVID-19 disruptions

Jieying Lee et al. Prev Med Rep. .

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the existing challenges to achieving the WHO target of eliminating cervical cancer as a public health problem by working towards the target of fewer than four cases per 100 000 women. We reviewed the literature to identify potential recovery strategies to support cervical cancer prevention programs in lower-and middle-income countries (LMICs) following COVID-19 disruptions and the extent to which strategies have been implemented. Utilising the WHO health systems framework, we mapped these recovery strategies against the six building blocks to examine their reach across the health system. Most recovery strategies were focused on service delivery, while leadership and governance played a pivotal role in the continuity of cervical cancer prevention programs during the pandemic. Leadership and governance were the drivers for outcomes in the building blocks of health information systems, financing and critical support in operationalising service delivery strategies. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic with strained health resources and economies, stakeholders would significantly influence the coverage and sustainability of cervical cancer prevention programs. The support from multisectoral stakeholders would accelerate the recovery of cervical cancer prevention programs. To achieve the WHO target by 2030, we call for future studies to understand the barriers and facilitators from the perspectives of stakeholders in order to support the decision-making processes and information required to implement recovery strategies in LMICs.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

This is a research project initiated by the research team and supported by Merck education grant. Merck has no financial interest, ownership, and intellectual property rights of the research project findings. SMG is supported by NHMRC APP1197951 Leadership Investigator grant level 3, a member of the advisory board for the nine valent HPV vaccine of Merck, received educational grant from Merck for study on HPV and young women through her institution and received Merck lecture fees. SK has served in advisory boards of both Merck & GSK and has received Merck lecture fees. IIP has received Roche lecture fees. DAM has received lecture fees from MSD. The other author reports no conflict of interest. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) flow diagram of information through the various phases of the systematic review.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Visual representations of the recommended strategies mapped to WHO health system building blocks. A column of dots represents a strategy, while each dot represents a publication. The dots with a black border represent the strategies that have been implemented in the 10 LMICs. Leadership and governance play a crucial role for strategies marked with grey areas.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ajenifuja K.O., Belinson J., Goldstein A., Desai K.T., de Sanjose S., Schiffman M. Designing low-cost, accurate cervical screening strategies that take into account COVID-19: a role for self-sampled HPV typing. Infect Agents Cancer. 2020;15(1) doi: 10.1186/s13027-020-00325-4. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Basu P., Lucas E., Zhang L.i., Muwonge R., Murillo R., Nessa A. Leveraging vertical COVID-19 investments to improve monitoring of cancer screening programme – A case study from Bangladesh. Preventive Medicine. 2021;151:106624. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Basu P., Alhomoud S., Taghavi K., Carvalho A.L., Lucas E., Baussano I. Cancer Screening in the Coronavirus Pandemic Era: Adjusting to a New Situation. JCO Global. Oncology. 2021;(7):416–424. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bruni L., Serrano B., Roura E., Alemany L., Cowan M., Herrero R., Poljak M., Murillo R., Broutet N., Riley L.M., de Sanjose S. Cervical cancer screening programmes and age-specific coverage estimates for 202 countries and territories worldwide: a review and synthetic analysis. The Lancet Global Health. 2022;10(8):e1115–e1127. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Budukh A.M., Dikshit R., Chaturvedi P. Outcome of the randomized control screening trials on oral, cervix and breast cancer from India and way forward in COVID -19 pandemic situation. Int J Cancer. 2021;149(8):1619–1620. doi: 10.1002/ijc.33712. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources