The pathway for India to beat cervical cancer

England and Scotland saw no cervical cancer cases or deaths among women vaccinated against HPV in adolescence, linked to the Gardasil-4 vaccine.

India began national HPV vaccination in 2025, offering a single dose of Gardasil-4 free to 1.15 crore girls aged 14 yearly across all states and Union Territories.

Australia achieved cervical cancer incidence of 6.3 per 100,000 women by 2021 and is projected to eliminate the disease as a public health problem around 2035.

Nearly one in four global cervical cancer deaths in 2022 occurred in India, where cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women.

The World Health Organization has adopted a formal strategy for global elimination of cervical cancer, which is preventable via HPV vaccination and detectable through screening.