Jhpiego concluded Phase 1 of the SUCCESS project in August 2024, supporting cervical cancer prevention and treatment services for nearly 185,000 women in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guatemala, and the Philippines. Funded by Unitaid, SUCCESS (Scale Up Cervical Cancer Elimination with Secondary Prevention Strategy) focuses on early detection of cervical cancer through HPV testing and innovative treatments like thermal ablation.
Of the nearly 185,000 women screened during Phase 1, almost 126,700 women benefited from HPV screening. Remarkably, 87% of these women chose to self-collect their sample; the percentage increased every year. The overall HPV positivity rate was 19%, and only these women needed to come back to their facility to determine if they were eligible for precancerous treatment. Over 80% of women tested negative—they did not have HPV. As a result, in most cases, they are free of cervical precancer and will only need to repeat the screening in three to five years, depending on their health status.
We also enhanced provider skills and contributed to new policy development and health systems integration. Our work in cervical cancer elimination is women-centered and systems-focused to ensure that the health system is enhanced to support high numbers of women to participate in their screening. When women participate in HPV screening through self-sampling, the number of women testing in the health system increases dramatically.
In Phase 2 of the SUCCESS project, Jhpiego will focus on community-level HPV self-sampling efforts through a variety of engagement points to generate evidence for new options that increase access to cervical cancer screening and treatment for women in their communities and in their homes.
What SUCCESS looks like in Guatemala:
Nurse Inés Garcia facilitates cervical cancer prevention and oversees cervical cancer services in the Baja Verapaz, Guatemala, health area. Under the SUCCESS project, Inés helped introduce HPV screening and thermal ablation to treat precancerous lesions. The health facility in Baja Verapaz recently started using funds, allocated by the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance Reproductive Health Program, to purchase thermal ablation devices to increase and ensure treatment of women with precancerous lesions.
SUCCESS is a project led by Expertise France, with Jhpiego and the Union for International Cancer Control as partners.
Tracey Shissler is the Implementation Director for Jhpiego in SUCCESS. Aura Arevalo is a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer with Jhpiego Guatemala.