Is Malaysia On Track To Eliminate Cervical Cancer?

On 30 December 2003, Cantopop singer Anita Mui passed away from cervical cancer, amid an outpouring of grief from her fans. Thirty years later, this disease is still the fourth most common cancer, and continues to kill one woman every two minutes. The World Health Organization has laid out a strategy to eliminate cervical cancer worldwide as a public health problem, where all countries reach an annual incidence rate of four cases per 100,000 women or less. But how is elimination possible, when HPV vaccination is still uneven, screening uptake is low, and there are barriers to accessing treatment, including gaps in insurance coverage? Professor Dr Woo Yin Ling, Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist from University Malaya Medical Centre, and Dr Murallitharan Munisamy, Managing Director of the National Cancer Society of Malaysia, join us discuss what Malaysia needs to prioritise to achieve the elimination agenda along with the rest of the world.

Image credit: ROSE Foundation & National Cancer Society of Malaysia