Skip to main content
European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA)
  • News article
  • 30 January 2025
  • European Health and Digital Executive Agency
  • 2 min read

Cervical cancer awareness month: EU4Health projects contrasting HPV

Cervical cancer awareness month

Infection from human papillomavirus (HPV) is the cause of 99.7% of cases of cervical cancer. HPV vaccination and population-based organised cervical cancer screenings can save lives. 

Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan made gender-neutral HPV vaccination a priority. Gender-neutral vaccination, with a 90% uptake level, is central to the elimination of all the cancers caused by HPV. Healthcare professionals have a critically important role in vaccination decision-making by young people and their parents/carers. They must be provided with information, guidance and training about how to communicate effectively with their patients to encourage HPV vaccination. 

During cervical cancer awareness month, let’s take a closer look at EU4Health projects informing, training and raising awareness among the young populations about the importance of HPV vaccination to prevent and eliminate cervical cancer. 

  • The recently finished PROTECT-EUROPE project has analysed and identified key factors that help improve communication between healthcare providers, public health services and young people and their carers, thus, contributing to improving the uptake of gender-neutral vaccination across Europe. The project developed 10 masterclasses on topics ranging from HPV epidemiology to access to vaccination. Each of them included case studies on successful delivery of HPV immunisation.
  • Joint Action PERCH, uniting 34 partner organisations from 18 EU countries, is working to increase HPV vaccination coverage across Europe by launching national and subnational HPV vaccination campaigns, including school-based initiatives, social media outreach, and community-focused activities. In order to tailor these campaigns to the specific countries, determinants of vaccination hesitancy will also be analysed. 
  • The ReThinkHPVaccination project is developing personalised communication and training in order to reduce inequalities in HPV vaccination between and within countries, to reduce incidence and mortality of cervical cancer. HPV vaccine intake is in fact very low in some countries. The main goal of this project is to support EU countries like Romania and widening countries to rethink and restart their HPV vaccination campaigns and take a step closer to achieving Europe's Beating Cancer Plan's objectives with regards to HPV vaccination and cancer prevention. 

Background 

EU4Health is the fourth and largest of the EU health programmes. The EU4Health programme goes beyond an ambitious response to the COVID-19 crisis to address the resilience of European healthcare systems. The programme provides funding to national authorities, health organisations and other bodies through grants and public procurement, contributing to a healthier Europe.   

HaDEA manages the vast majority of the total EU4Health budget and implements the programme by managing calls for proposals and tenders from 2021 to 2027. 

Details

Publication date
30 January 2025
Author
European Health and Digital Executive Agency
Programme Sector
  • Health
Programme
  • EU4Health
Tags
  • EUCancerPlan
  • Public health