National Policies to Prevent and Manage Cervical Cancer in East African Countries: A Policy Mapping Analysis

Abstract

Policy mapping is used to provide evidence on effective interventions and highlight the necessary refinements of health policies. The goal of this work is to carry out legal mapping to identify and assess health policies for the prevention and management of cervical cancer in East African countries. Cervical cancer, as a largely preventable disease, is the cause of most cancer deaths among women in East African countries. Legal documents were searched uniformly from government websites, national cancer institute sites, and international and national legal databases, then the data were analyzed using the Nvivo12 software package. The sample of 24 documents includes policies, plans, guidelines, acts, and strategies from 12 East African countries. The emerging themes were screening, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, challenges, and mitigation efforts. A few binding policies, a significant discrepancy to international standards in at least four countries, patchy screening registries, and a lack of prophylactic vaccination against human papillomavirus incorporation into national immunization schedules are the main findings. This paper underlies the role of law in health and the need for transparent legal and regulatory tools to achieve a further reduction in cervical cancer mortality in East African countries.

Risk factors for precancerous cervical lesion among women screened for cervical cancer in south Ethiopia: Unmatched case-control study

“…The incidence and mortality from cervical cancer is 26 and 18 per 100,000, respectively [15]. These numbers are likely to be under-reported given the limited access to screening services and low level of awareness of cervical cancer [16]. Studies in Ethiopia have shown that the magnitude of precancerous cervical lesions among women ranges from 7% to 28% [17][18][19][20].…”

Racial Disparities Associated with the Prevalence of Vaccine and Non-Vaccine HPV Types and Multiple HPV Infections between Asia and Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…This study suggests that majority, over 72%, of cervical cancer attributable to HPV in North and East Africa could be prevented by vaccine, especially by using quadrivalent and nonavalent vaccines. Since 7 out of 12 countries are currently providing HPV vaccination at no cost for girls in East Africa, there is a higher chance of eliminating cervical cancer in the sub-continent by 2090 (Brisson et al, 2020;Njuguna et al, 2020). The findings of this study show that though nonavalent vaccine could prevent approximately 52% of cervical cancer attributable to HPV in Central, Western and Southern Africa, a tangible number of cervical cancer will still be observed in the sub-regions due to high prevalence of non-vaccine hrHPV.…”

Racial disparities in the prevalence of vaccine and non-vaccine HPV types and multiple HPV infection between Asia and Africa: A systematic review

“…This study suggests that majority, over 72%, of cervical cancer attributable to HPV in North and East Africa could be prevented by vaccine, especially by using quadrivalent and nonavalent vaccines. Since 7 out of 12 countries are currently providing HPV vaccination at no cost for girls in East Africa, there is a higher chance of eliminating cervical cancer in the sub-continent by 2090 [9,27]. The findings of this study show that though nonavalent vaccine could prevent approximately 52% of cervical cancer attributable to HPV in Central, Western and Southern Africa, a tangible number of cervical cancer will still be observed in the sub-regions due to high prevalence of non-vaccine hrHPV.…”