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Single-dose HPV vaccination plus HPV self-sampling to reach WHO elimination in low-income countries

One shot for girls and a mail-in swab for women could hit the WHO 90-70-90 targets at a fraction of the cost of the traditional three-dose, clinic-based model.

KEN SHE showed 97.5% single-dose efficacy; self-sampled HPV PCR matches clinician sampling; thermal ablation enables screen-and-treat. Modelling (Lancet Global Health 2024) suggests single-dose schedules could make elimination feasible in most low-income settings within the century, but coverage of girls is still ~27% globally.

Hypothesis
Countries adopting single-dose HPV vaccination plus HPV self-sampling with screen-and-treat reach 90% vaccination and 70% screening coverage a decade earlier than those on multi-dose, cytology-based programmes.
Rationale
Cost per protected girl halves; self-sampling removes clinic access and stigma barriers; ablation removes the surgeon bottleneck.
What would test it
Country-level comparisons within the WHO Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative dashboards, and cluster-randomised implementation trials (e.g., in Kenya, Rwanda, India).
Maturity
being tested at scale

Key papers

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