Health organizations, patient advocates to Congress:

We can and must eliminate HPV-related cancers

In May of 2018 the World Health Organization (WHO) Director General released a call to action for the global elimination of cervical cancer, a preventable a nd curable cancer.

We the undersigned, including medical and public health organizations, and patient advocates, endorse the WHO goal and advocate for the United States (U.S.) to take action toward the elimination of cancers caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) through gender-neutral HPV vaccination and evidence b ased cancer screening.

The U.S. can and should be one of the first countries to achieve elimination of cervical cancer, with other HPV-related cancers in males and females to follow. Therefore, we issue the following Call to Action in alignment with the U.S. Heathy People 2020 goals:

Complete vaccination of more than 80 percent of males and females ages 13-15 by 2020
Screen 93 percent of age-eligible females for cervical cancer by 2020
Provide prompt follow up and proper treatment of females who screen positive for high grade cervical pre-cancerous lesions

The above interventions are the optimal route to cervical cancer elimination. They have been proven beneficial and cost-effective in both low- and high-resource settings, and therefore are recommended as priority health measures in all countries.

We can and must contribute resources needed to implement these strategies.

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