Less detected and less vaccinated, overseas delay in the fight against cervical cancer

Less detected and less vaccinated, overseas delay in the fight against cervical cancer


The disease, which usually occurs after infection with a papillomavirus, can be avoided thanks to vaccination. If vaccination coverage progresses in France, the DROMs are below the national average.

Each year, 1 100 women die from cervical cancer in France and more than 3 000 cases are identified. However, the disease is largely preventable.

This type of cancer generally occurs several decades after an infection by a human papillomavirus. There are more than 200 types of papillomavirus. Some are sexually transmitted and can cause several types of cancer : from the cervix, anus, vagina, penis, but also mouth or throat. 80% of women and men are exposed during their lives to these viruses.

There is a papillomavirus vaccine. Vaccination prevents up to 90% of infections that cause cancers. It is recommended For girls and boys Between 11 and 14 years old and requires two doses. It is also possible to be vaccinated between 15 and 19 years, but the immune response will be less strong and it will take three doses to make the vaccine effective. The injection can be done by a doctor or in pharmacy, and since the start of the 2023 school year, Children in 5e can be vaccinated in college If their parents agree.


Campaign for papillomavirus vaccination


In an inventory of vaccination and screening for cervical cancer published by Public Health France on the occasion of World Cancer Day, the organization notes that if “Vaccination coverage has been constantly increasing since 2016″, There are important “Territorial disparities”. Among all French territories, The overseas are the most lagging behind.

In 2023, throughout the national territory, 55% of girls under the age of 15 had received at least one dose of vaccine. They were only 31% in Guadeloupe, 29% in Guyana, 24% in Reunion and 22% in Martinique.

For the last period observed (2023 vaccine coverage), Guadeloupe, Guyana, and Martinique presented particularly low rates in comparison with the national average.

The best students are the Pays de la Loire and Normandy, regions where more than 66% of girls are vaccinated. These figures are nevertheless well below the objectives set by the World Health Organization (WHO), which aims at 90% of girls vaccinated before their 15th birthday.

There is a second weapon to combat cervical cancer : screening, which allows take care of patients as soon as possible and Reduce mortality.

In 2023, Almost 60% of women aged 25 to 63 had screened cervical cancer in the past three years. But Again, the practice is less common in overseas that elsewhere in France. Only the meeting is in the national average (64%). Women detected were only 44% in Guadeloupe, 40% in Martinique and 32% in Guyana over the same period. The figure falls to 15% for Mayotte.

Public health authors France cite several factors which could explain the low vaccination and screening rate observed in the ultramarine territories, in particularcultural brakes around sexuality “, more difficult access “In information and health professionals” and “Economic inequalities”.

The more disadvantaged a population, the lower the vaccination against papillomavirus. The France 2021 Public Health Barometer Demonstrates that adolescent girls whose parents consider themselves “comfortable financially” are vaccinated at almost 60%. The proportion is 26% for those whose parents “difficult to get there” and fall at 15% for adolescent girls whose parents “do not manage without debts”.

Another explanatory factor : the fear that vaccination is dangerous. Since the creation of the vaccine, More than 300 million doses have been injected into the world. “We have the necessary perspective to say that the vaccine is quite sure”, Assures Jérôme Viguier, oncologist at the National Cancer Institute. In Australia, one of the first countries to have launched a vaccination campaign, papillomavirus infections are fewer and fewer. Cervical cancer could even be eradicated in the country from 2035.



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