Cervical cancer and HPV screening
Patient education
- Almost all of it comes from a common virus
- It is findable years before it is cancer
- The vaccine is for girls, the screen is for women
The years between the infection and the cancer
The long gap is the whole opportunity. A screening test looks for the changes in the middle of this line, years before anything can be felt.
Drawn for AfyaMesh. Not yet checked by a clinician.
The vaccine and the screening test happen at different ages
They are not alternatives and they are not for the same person on the same day. One is given before the infection can arrive; the other looks for what the infection has already started.
Drawn for AfyaMesh. Not yet checked by a clinician.
What it is
A cancer of the cervix, the neck of the womb. Nearly all of it comes from a common virus called HPV, which is passed on during sex. Most HPV infections clear by themselves and cause nothing. A few stay for years and slowly change the cells of the cervix - and those changes can be found and treated long before they ever become a cancer.
When to seek urgent care
There is bleeding after sex, bleeding between periods, or any bleeding at all once the periods have stopped for good; bleeding that will not stop; or swelling of a leg with pain low in the back.
What are the facts
Cervical cancer is the cancer that kills more women in Cameroon than any other, and it is also the one that is most preventable. These figures describe one year.
In Cameroon
1 453- Women died of cervical cancer during 2024, more than from any other cancer
- There were 2 379 new cases, making it the second most diagnosed cancer in women after breast
Worldwide
604 000- New cases during 2024, and about 280 000 deaths
- It is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer in women globally
Where it comes from
Almost all- Cervical cancer follows a long-lasting infection with HPV, a common virus passed on during sex
- Most HPV infections clear on their own and cause nothing
Country comparison
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Cervical cancer kills more women in Cameroon than any other cancer, and it is one of the few cancers that can be found and treated at the stage before it becomes a cancer at all.
How to read these numbers
Cameroon has no national cancer registry covering the whole country. GLOBOCAN estimates its figures from regional rates and modelled survival, so these are modelled estimates rather than counted cases, and they can be revised.
These are annual estimates for one year, not a count of everybody alive with the condition, and not a prediction of any one person's risk.
WHO recommends a high-performance screening test every five to ten years from the age of thirty, and every three to five years from twenty-five for a woman living with HIV. What is offered here may differ; a health centre will know.
Sources checked 2026-11-07.
How it shows
At the stage where it is easiest to treat, nothing at all. That is the whole reason screening exists. Later there can be bleeding between periods, bleeding after sex, bleeding after the periods have stopped for good, a discharge that smells, or pain low in the back or during sex.
What to do
Two different things protect you, and they are not alternatives. A vaccine against HPV, given to girls at about nine to fourteen years old, before they are sexually active. And screening for women from around the age of thirty, repeated at the interval a clinician gives you - earlier and more often for a woman living with HIV. The screen itself takes a few minutes at a clinic.
HPV vaccination and cervical screening are run as national programmes and are often free or subsidised; ask at a public health centre rather than assuming you must pay. A screening result is not a diagnosis. Most results that come back abnormal are early cell changes, and many are treated at the same visit or shortly after.
A cancer with a cause we can see coming
Nearly all cervical cancer follows a long-lasting infection with HPV, a very common virus passed on during sex. Most HPV infections cause nothing and clear on their own. A few persist, and over years they change the cells of the cervix. Those changes are what screening looks for.
That long gap is the whole opportunity. Cervical cancer is one of the few cancers where the step before the cancer can be found and treated, often at a single visit. A woman screened at the right ages is very unlikely to reach the stage where this becomes hard to treat.
The vaccine and the screen do different jobs
The HPV vaccine is given to girls at about nine to fourteen years old, before they become sexually active. It prevents the infection that causes the cancer, which is why the age matters: it works best before exposure, not after a diagnosis.
Screening is for adult women and looks for changes that are already there. WHO recommends a high-performance test every five to ten years from the age of thirty, and every three to five years from twenty-five for a woman living with HIV. Having had the vaccine does not replace being screened.
What symptoms mean here
At the stage where this is easiest to treat there are no symptoms at all. That is uncomfortable to read and it is the reason screening exists: waiting to feel something is waiting too long.
When symptoms do appear they are usually bleeding - after sex, between periods, or after the periods have stopped for good - or a discharge that smells, or pain low in the back or during sex. None of those means cancer, and most turn out to be something else, but all of them mean an examination rather than a screening appointment.
Sources
- Cervical cancer · World Health Organization · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO
Statistics and population data
2024 estimates. Sources checked 2026-11-07; this is separate from clinical review.