A free training course, launched on the first World Cervical Cancer Elimination Day
IARC and WHO put five modules on screening and precancer management online. The 90-70-90 targets they support depend on health workers who can act on a positive test.
Cervical cancer is the rare malignancy for which elimination is a stated global goal rather than an aspiration, because the tools exist: a vaccine that prevents the infection, a test that finds the precancer, and a treatment that removes it. On 17 November — the first World Cervical Cancer Elimination Day, mandated by the World Health Assembly — WHO marked the occasion, and researchers at the International Agency for Research on Cancer used it to launch something aimed squarely at the weakest link [s1][s2].
The gap the course addresses
WHO's elimination strategy runs on three numbers, the 90-70-90 targets to be reached by 2030: 90% of girls vaccinated against human papillomavirus by age 15, 70% of women screened with a high-performance test by age 35 and again at 45, and 90% of women with cervical cancer receiving treatment [s1].
The middle number is where the workforce problem bites. A screening programme produces screen-positive women, and someone has to examine, diagnose and treat them. IARC's framing is explicit: building the capacity of the necessary workforce, especially front-line providers, to carry out screening and manage screen-positive women is essential to achieving the targets [s1].
The new programme is free and hosted on the WHO Academy online learning platform [s1]. It is divided into five modules, each aimed at a category of professional — health officials, public health experts, midwives, nurses, general practitioners, community health workers, supervisors, and medical or nursing students — and combines e-learning with guidance during on-site practical sessions [s1].
That last clause is the part that determines whether it works. Colposcopy and ablative treatment are manual skills, and an online module can prepare someone for supervised practice but not substitute for it.
IARC has track record here. Its existing free resources, including the Atlas of Colposcopy and the Atlas of Visual Inspection of the Cervix, are accessed by an average of 100,000 visitors per month, and IARC has trained hundreds of master trainers and providers in screening, colposcopy and treatment of premalignant lesions [s1].
The scale of the disease
IARC estimates that in 2022 more than 660,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer worldwide and almost 350,000 died from it [s1]. WHO's separate elimination-day statement describes cervical cancer as the fourth most common cancer in women, claiming over 350,000 lives each year [s2].
Where countries actually are
WHO's elimination-day item lists national activity over the preceding year, and the pattern is that vaccination is moving faster than screening [s2].
On vaccination: China added HPV vaccine to its national immunization programme, scaling up to all 13-year-old girls; Pakistan launched national introduction with a campaign targeting girls aged 9–14, which WHO describes as reaching over 9 million girls in the largest single HPV campaign any country has conducted to date; Ghana held a nationwide campaign in October 2025 for girls aged 9–14 aiming to reach 2.4 million; Nepal ran a national campaign for girls aged 10–14 in February 2025; Tunisia introduced the vaccine routinely for 12-year-old girls in April 2025; Tajikistan began routine vaccination of girls aged 10–14 from October 2025; Angola launched a campaign in October for girls aged 9–12; and Cuba launched vaccination in October 2025 for all girls in Grade 4 [s2].
On screening, the examples are thinner and more recent: Sierra Leone planned a mass campaign across all 16 districts, and in Malaysia survivors led a week-long promotion of self-sampling HPV testing [s2]. Rwanda, through its Mission 2027 accelerated plan, is expanding nationwide screening and treatment to meet the targets three years ahead of the global goal [s2].
Gavi and partners estimate the goal of reaching 86 million girls by the end of 2025 has been met, with the verified number based on official WHO/UNICEF HPV vaccine coverage estimates due in July 2026 [s2]. That is an estimate awaiting verification, and WHO says so in its own editor's note [s2].
Why the vaccination-screening asymmetry matters
An HPV vaccination campaign is a single logistical event with a defined cohort. A screening programme is a permanent service that must find women, test them, return results, and then deliver a procedure to those who screen positive — and it must reach women already past the age at which vaccination helps.
Vaccinating girls today does not reduce cervical cancer deaths for decades. Screening and treating women in their thirties and forties does so now. The countries listed as scaling vaccination are, on the whole, not the ones listed as scaling screening [s2] — which is where a free training programme aimed at front-line providers [s1] is meant to fit.
What to watch
Whether the WHO/UNICEF coverage estimates due in July 2026 confirm the 86 million figure [s2], and whether screening coverage — the 70 in 90-70-90 — starts appearing in these country updates with the same specificity as vaccination numbers.
Sources
- IARC, WHO Academy, and other WHO partners launch new comprehensive learning programme on screening, diagnosis, and management of cervical precancer — World Health Organization, 2025-11-17
- World marks cervical cancer elimination day as countries accelerate action — World Health Organization, 2025-11-17
Sources
- IARC, WHO Academy, and other WHO partners launch new comprehensive learning programme on screening, diagnosis, and management of cervical precancer — World Health Organization , November 17, 2025
- World marks cervical cancer elimination day as countries accelerate action — World Health Organization , November 17, 2025
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