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. 2024 Jul;27(7):e26303.
doi: 10.1002/jia2.26303.

Cervical cancer prevention and care in HIV clinics across sub-Saharan Africa: results of a facility-based survey

Serra Lem Asangbeh-Kerman  1   2   3 , Maša Davidović  2   3   4 , Katayoun Taghavi  5 , Tafadzwa Dhokotera  1   2   3 , Albert Manasyan  6   7 , Anjali Sharma  6 , Antoine Jaquet  8 , Beverly Musick  9 , Christella Twizere  10 , Cleophas Chimbetete  11 , Gad Murenzi  12 , Hannock Tweya  13 , Josephine Muhairwe  14   15 , Kara Wools-Kaloustian  16 , Karl-Gunter Technau  17   18 , Kathryn Anastos  19   20 , Marcel Yotebieng  20 , Marielle Jousse  21 , Oliver Ezechi  22 , Omenge Orang'o  23 , Samuel Bosomprah  6   24 , Simon Pierre Boni  25   26 , Partha Basu  27 , Julia Bohlius  2   3   5 ; IeDEA
Affiliations

Cervical cancer prevention and care in HIV clinics across sub-Saharan Africa: results of a facility-based survey

Serra Lem Asangbeh-Kerman et al. J Int AIDS Soc. 2024 Jul.

Abstract

Introduction: To eliminate cervical cancer (CC), access to and quality of prevention and care services must be monitored, particularly for women living with HIV (WLHIV). We assessed implementation practices in HIV clinics across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to identify gaps in the care cascade and used aggregated patient data to populate cascades for WLHIV attending HIV clinics.

Methods: Our facility-based survey was administered between November 2020 and July 2021 in 30 HIV clinics across SSA that participate in the International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) consortium. We performed a qualitative site-level assessment of CC prevention and care services and analysed data from routine care of WLHIV in SSA.

Results: Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination was offered in 33% of sites. Referral for CC diagnosis (42%) and treatment (70%) was common, but not free at about 50% of sites. Most sites had electronic health information systems (90%), but data to inform indicators to monitor global targets for CC elimination in WLHIV were not routinely collected in these sites. Data were collected routinely in only 36% of sites that offered HPV vaccination, 33% of sites that offered cervical screening and 20% of sites that offered pre-cancer and CC treatment.

Conclusions: Though CC prevention and care services have long been available in some HIV clinics across SSA, patient and programme monitoring need to be improved. Countries should consider leveraging their existing health information systems and use monitoring tools provided by the World Health Organization to improve CC prevention programmes and access, and to track their progress towards the goal of eliminating CC.

Keywords: HIV; cervical cancer prevention; monitoring; outcomes; prevention and care cascades; sub‐Saharan Africa.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Map showing participating countries.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Percentage of women screened for cervical pre‐cancerous lesions (Panel a) and percentage of women treated for cervical pre‐cancer (Panel b). CEPREF, Centre de Prise en charge, de Recherche et de Formation; CNTS, Centre National de Transfusion Sanguine.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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