Bucharest, Romania - June 22, 2023 - The European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (EPF) and the European Cancer Organisation (ECO) are delighted to announce the launch of the HPV Prevention Policy Atlas 2023. This highly anticipated event took place at the Human Rights Hall in the Romanian Parliament.
This special launch event brought together Members of Parliament, government officials, academia and civil society to identify policies aimed at increasing HPV vaccination, screening, and public awareness in Romania. The Atlas is a joint project that scores countries throughout Europe on their HPV vaccination efforts and cervical cancer screening policies.
The launch brought together more than 100 stakeholders from diverse backgrounds in the field of SRHR, including policymakers, healthcare professionals, advocates, and esteemed speakers who shared their insights and expertise on HPV prevention policies in Romania and Europe.
MP Cătălin Teniță, the host of the event and member of The Human Rights Committee, REPER, delivered an inspiring opening remark, emphasizing the importance of concerted efforts in combating HPV-related diseases. Dr. Diana-Loreta Păun, Presidential Adviser from the Department of Public Health of the Presidential Administration, and associate professor, also shared her valuable perspective on the significance of HPV prevention in public health. The HPV Prevention Policy Atlas 2023 was presented by representatives of EPF and ECO, namely Neil Datta, Executive Director of EPF, and Mike Morrissey, Chief Executive of ECO.
The Atlas reveals a very uneven picture across the European region. The best-performing countries include Denmark, Sweden, Finland, UK, and Ireland. Countries at the bottom of the ranking are Kosovo, Azerbaijan, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The HPV Prevention Policy Atlas is a research project led by the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights and supported by the European Cancer Organisation. It investigates how European public authorities perform across three key areas: primary prevention, secondary prevention (screening) and online information. The tool aims at providing up-to-date publicly available information across all countries of WHO European region in line with WHO cervical cancer elimination strategy and Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. The decision to launch the HPV Prevention Policy Atlas in Romania is for a good reason. Romania has the highest cervical cancer incidence and mortality rate in Europe, with about 32,3 new cases per 100.000 women and with up to 17 in every 100.000 women killed by the disease ‒ more than four times the EU average. Yet Romania has relatively low levels of HPV vaccination uptake and cervical cancer screening.
The Atlas, which was first launched in 2020, ranks 48 countries across Europe on a range of measures related to HPV Prevention Policies, including the implementation of gender-neutral vaccination, which varies a lot across Europe. Yet there is overall progress across most of Europe. Out of all the countries analysed:
- 39 countries (81%) offer a national routine program on vaccination;
- 30 countries (62%) offer gender-neutral vaccination;
- 23 countries (47%) have an HPV vaccine registry;
- 25 countries (52%) offer easy-to-find governmental websites with good or excellent information.
EPF express sincere gratitude to all partners, participants, speakers, and attendees for their active engagement throughout the event. The launch of the HPV Prevention Policy Atlas 2023 marks a significant milestone in advancing HPV prevention efforts in Romania and Europe.
About the project partner:
ECO - European Cancer Organisation - is a not-for-profit federation of 42 European medical societies working in cancer (oncologists, nurses and pharmacists) together with 21 European patient organisations. ECO convenes oncology professionals and patients to build consensus, agree on policy, advocate for change and be the united voice of the European cancer community. ECO has a dedicated HPV Action Network and the data from the Policy Atlas is included in the European Cancer Pulse. More information is available at europeancancer.org and europeancancerpulse.org.
