Narrative review on awareness, challenges, and vaccine uptake of cervical cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa
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Date
2025
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AJOL
Abstract
Cervical cancer is among the distressing problems in many countries in the world, while many
cases are revealed in sub-Saharan Africa. Consequently, the objective of this paper was to provide a narrative review
on awareness, challenges, and vaccine uptake of cervical cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) using online and
offline library resources in a documentary review design where different publications on the theme were extracted
and discussed. The review employed a content analysis approach. The findings of this review show that there is low
awareness of cervical cancer, the screening process, and the Human Papillomavirus vaccine. The challenges
hindering cervical cancer screening and vaccine uptake are related to: lack of health personnel; social myths and
stigma; fear of cancer; cultural practices among Africans; and health personnel’s attitude. It is concluded that, given
the status of awareness of people about cervical cancer, the mitigation measures for containing and reducing the
transmission of cervical cancer are less effective in sub-Saharan Africa and other countries. Hence, there is a need for
more location-specific evidence on sociocultural factors that may hamper the adoption of recommended practices to
address the problem.
Description
Journal article
Keywords
Cervical Cancer, Screening, Human Papillomavirus, Vaccine, Awareness
Citation
https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jasem.v29i7.4