This Is Not an Awareness Campaign. It Is an Elimination Strategy.
EVIDENCE TO ACTION | Science Made Simple Special Edition | International HPV Awareness Day | March 4, 2026
By Dr. Odessa Lacsina, Executive Director, The State of Women Institute
I am writing this from Guyana.
Being here — meeting women for whom cervical cancer screening will be accessible for the very first time — makes this research personal in a way that no amount of reading could. The science is ready. The will is building. And the work is happening right now, in real time, in communities that have waited long enough.
Every March 4, the world observes International HPV Awareness Day. Most campaigns ask us to raise awareness. We are asking something different: to raise our expectations.
Cervical cancer is preventable. We have the tools — HPV vaccination and organized screening. What we have lacked is the will to deploy them together, equitably, and at scale. A landmark study published in Nature Communications changes the conversation — not from ignorance to awareness, but from awareness to infrastructure.
This edition of Science Made Simple breaks down what the research shows, what it means for you, and what it demands from our systems. Because the science is no longer the barrier.
The Study That Changes What Elimination Means
In 2021, researchers in Stockholm did something straightforward that turned out to be quietly radical. Led by Arroyo Mühr and colleagues, the team sent an invitation to every woman in the region born between 1994 and 1999 — all 89,547 of them — and made them an offer: come in once, get your HPV vaccine and your cervical screening done at the same visit, and go home.
No separate appointments. No choosing one or the other. Both, together, in a single visit.
The scientific term for this approach is a concomitant strategy — doing two interventions simultaneously rather than sequentially. But the underlying question was simpler than the terminology: is doing both at once actually faster at getting us to elimination than doing either one alone?
Of the nearly 90,000 women invited, 26,125 — just under 30 percent — enrolled between 2021 and 2022. What the researchers found when they modeled the data was striking.
In the cohorts that had already been offered the HPV vaccine years earlier, two of the most dangerous strains — HPV16 and HPV18 — had already declined significantly. That was vaccination doing its job over time. But vaccination has an inherent limitation: it takes decades for a vaccinated generation to age through the window of risk. In the meantime, HPV keeps circulating among people who were never vaccinated.
Screening addresses a different part of the problem. It doesn't prevent infection — but it catches what's already there, identifying abnormal cells before they can become cancer. The catch is that screening has to be repeated, because it can't stop new infections from occurring.
Put the two together, though, and something different happens. The model predicted a 62 to 64 percent reduction in high-risk HPV infections within just three years of implementing the combined strategy. Not decades. Three years. The researchers described it as a compounding public health effect — each intervention amplifying the other in ways that neither could achieve alone, producing what the study called near-complete protection when both were combined.
The conclusion Arroyo Mühr and her colleagues drew was direct:
*"Concomitant HPV vaccination and HPV screening appears to be a realistic option for faster cervical cancer elimination."*¹
Not aspirational. Not theoretical. Realistic — with the right infrastructure behind it.
Science Made Simple: What This Means in Plain Language
The old message was: Get vaccinated.
That message has saved lives. HPV vaccines are among the most effective cancer prevention tools ever developed. But vaccination alone has a time problem — it takes decades for a vaccinated generation to grow up, and in the meantime, HPV keeps spreading among adults who were never vaccinated.
The new message is: Vaccinate AND screen. At the same time. For everyone.
Screening has something vaccination doesn't: speed. Once a woman is screened, the benefit is immediate — abnormal cells can be found and treated before they become cancer. Combined with vaccination, you get short-term protection from screening and long-term elimination from vaccination. The two tools work differently, and that's precisely why they work better together.
Why Together Is Not Just Better — It's Transformational
Think of it this way:
Vaccination stops future infections from taking hold.
Screening catches current infections before they become cancer.
When you do both — you stop what's coming AND address what's already here.
That is how you move from management to elimination.
Why Black and Brown Women Need This Most
The benefits of this combined strategy are not distributed equally — and neither are the harms when systems fail to implement it.
In the United States, Black women are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer at advanced stages and to die from the disease — not because of biology, but because of systemic disparities in access to both vaccination and screening.
According to the CDC, only 38% of Black women have received the HPV vaccine, compared to 48% of white women.² Hispanic women face even greater barriers, with many reporting they didn't know they needed screening at all. These are not knowledge failures. They are infrastructure failures.
What the disparity looks like:
Black women are twice as likely to die from cervical cancer as white women²
Hispanic women have the highest cervical cancer incidence rate of any racial or ethnic group in the U.S.²
Women without health insurance report 7x more difficulty accessing cervical cancer screening²
Knowledge gaps about HPV and its link to cancer are significantly higher among Black and Hispanic populations²
The combined vaccination and screening strategy is especially critical in underserved communities — where neither tool alone has been delivered consistently
Six Things Every Woman Should Know
1. You can get vaccinated as an adult. The HPV vaccine is approved through age 45. If you were never vaccinated, or didn't complete the series, talk to your provider. It is not too late.
2. Vaccination and screening are not either/or. Getting the vaccine does not mean you can skip your Pap smear or HPV test. This research confirms that doing both is significantly more protective than either alone.¹
3. Self-collection is now an option. In many settings — including the Guyana HPV Elimination Initiative — women can collect their own cervical sample for HPV testing. This removes one of the biggest barriers to screening: access to a clinic.
4. Your birth year matters. Women born before widespread vaccination was available — particularly those born before the late 1990s — may not have vaccine protection, and are the exact population this study targets for the concomitant strategy.¹
5. Ask your provider specifically. Don't just ask if you are "up to date." Ask: Have I been tested for high-risk HPV strains? Have I been offered vaccination? What screening interval is right for my age and history?
6. This is about systems, not just personal choices. The most important thing you can do is demand that your healthcare system, your employer, and your elected officials invest in making both vaccination and screening universally accessible — not just available to those who can afford it.
"The science is no longer the barrier. This initiative is how we build effective systems." — Dr. Odessa Lacsina, Executive Director, The State of Women Institute
Take Action: Three Steps This Week
Step 1 — Know Your Status
Call your provider and ask: When was my last HPV screening? Have I been tested for high-risk HPV strains?
If you haven't been screened in the past 3–5 years, schedule an appointment this week
Ask about self-collection options if a clinic visit is a barrier for you
Step 2 — Protect Yourself and the People You Love
Share this post with one woman in your life who may not have been vaccinated or screened recently
If you have a daughter, niece, or young woman in your community — make sure she knows the HPV vaccine is recommended starting at age 9
The vaccine works best before exposure, but it has benefit at any age through 45
Step 3 — Demand Infrastructure
Contact your local health department or elected representative and ask what cervical cancer screening programs exist in your community
Support organizations — including The State of Women — that are building the delivery systems this research calls for
Follow the Guyana HPV Elimination Initiative for real-time updates on what elimination looks like in practice
Cervical cancer is preventable. Elimination is possible: Where women's voices build the systems that sustain their health.
Evidence to Action | The State of Women Institute | thestateofwomen.org
Sources
¹ Arroyo Mühr LS, Gini A, Yilmaz E, Hassan SS, et al. "Concomitant human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and screening for elimination of HPV and cervical cancer." Nature Communications, Vol. 15, Article 3679, May 1, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47909-x
² Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HPV Vaccination Coverage and Cervical Cancer Disparities Data. https://www.cdc.gov/hpv