POLITICO, “OP-ED: ONE PREVENTABLE DEATH IS TOO MANY”

In sub-Saharan Africa, breast and cervical cancers take the lives of more than 100,000 women each year. And in countries such as Zambia, 37.1 percent of women who die of breast cancer are in their productive and reproductive years. Sadly, cervical cancer is four to five times more common among women who are HIV-positive, which helps explain why cervical cancer is so common in developing countries. To make matters worse, 80 to 90 percent of women in sub-Saharan Africa have never had a pelvic exam. We must reverse these trends.

This week I joined global leaders in Tanzania to launch the latest country to engage with Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon, a campaign begun in 2011 to fight women’s cancers in Sub-Saharan Africa. This program leverages the HIV/AIDS platform — the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), built under President George W. Bush and sustained under President Obama’s Global Health Initiative — to also screen and treat women for cervical and create an entry point to integrate breast cancer services.