Burden of cervical cancer in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Cervical cancer is a growing problem, especially in resource-limited settings. The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) consists of 22 countries in the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa and Central Asia with some of the greatest inequalities within countries and between countries in the world. The objective of this study is to assess the burden of cervical cancer mortality and Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) in EMR, and globally between 2000 and 2017, using a pooled data analysis approach. We used an ecological approach at country level. This included extracting data from publicly available databases and linking them together in three steps; i) extraction data from Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study 2000 and 2017; ii) Categorization of EMR countries according to the World Bank national income GDP per capita and iii) linking the age specific population data from the Population Statistics Division of the United Nations (20-29, 30-49 and >50) and GBD’s data with GDP income level and globally Extracted data included the cervical cancer mortality and DALYs numbers and rates per country. The cervical cancer mortality rate was provided by GBD using the formula of (number of cervical cancer deaths x 100,000 / female population in the respective age group). We found an increase in the burden of cervical cancer in EMR according to absolute number of death and DALY. Cervical cancer is a preventable disease due to the HPV vaccination and early screening. Therefore, we recommend identifying the effective vaccination program and interventions to reduce the burden of this growing disease. Also, health care system has an increased number of cases to deal with, despite the decrease in the absolute number of death and DALY.