Spotlight on Tanzania, where the delivery of human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) to protect women from cervical cancer is a key step globally in closing the preventable disease gap between rich and poor women worldwide.

  • Tanzania is one of several countries running human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) vaccine demonstration projects with Gavi support, testing their ability to deliver the vaccines to adolescent girls at school.
  • Ocean Road Cancer Institute in Dar es Salam is the only specialised facility for cancer treatment in Tanzania. It is a service that Tanzanian women increasingly need: 90% of women who die from cervical cancer live in developing countries, in part due to the lack of early screening resources.
  • Nurse Rehema Nkomola examines a woman for cervical cancer. Global deaths from cervical cancer have increased 40% since 1990, to 266,000.
  • Cervical cancer patient Tabu Kitmonga Kiparu (46) sits upright on her hospital bed – a visible reminder of the real lives behind the statistics.
  • However, these deaths are almost wholly preventable, as HPV vaccines can help prevent up to 70% of cervical cancer cases. Although many wealthier countries have introduced the vaccine, the same cannot be said for those countries where women are most likely to die of the disease.
  • Waiting around is not an option for the global community - by 2035, cervical cancer is expected to cause 416,000 women to die every year, overtaking even childbirth as the number one killer of women worldwide.
  • Together, we can work to prevent this future. By 2020, Gavi aims to have supported HPV immunisation for more than 30 million girls in more than 40 of the world’s poorest countries.
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Last updated: 27 Sep 2019

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