Fewer than 260 Australian women die from cervical cancer in a year. In developing countries like Malawi, it’s closer to nine women every day.
Cervical cancer is the only cancer that is almost 100 per cent preventable, and Australia leads the world in its elimination nationally. But the picture in other countries is far less rosy.
How is cervical cancer prevented?
Cervical cancer is caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV). It’s sexually transmitted and most of us have been exposed to it, so the most effective prevention is vaccination against HPV (Gardasil) administered before the start of sexual activity. Australia was the first country to roll out a national HPV vaccination program in 2007 and in 2013 also started to vaccinate boys.
It can take around twenty years before an HPV infection potentially develops into cancer. Cervical cancer is the only cancer in which early changes can be directly observed and treated, preventing the progression to cancer. WHO wants all women to be screened at least twice between 35 and 45 years of age. If a woman is screened just once, her risk of developing cancer is halved. If she is screened twice, it’s reduced by a massive 90 per cent.
Since 2017, cervical screening in Australia is done by testing for the HPV virus directly. Only women who test positive require further investigation. Since 1991, Australia’s cervical cancer incidence and death rates have halved.
Sadly, such a co-ordinated, life-saving system is not available to millions of women in developing countries. For women living with HIV – about 20 million in sub-Saharan Africa – the progression from HPV Infection to cervical cancer is six times faster.
Global efforts for change
In the last few years I have been working with PINCC NGO, an international, nonprofit organization with a single mission: to create sustainable programs that prevent cervical cancer by educating women, training medical personnel, and equipping facilities in developing countries, utilizing proven, low cost and efficient technology methods.
Based in the USA, PINCC operates around the world sending teams of medical and support volunteers to high-risk communities to run training camps for local healthcare workers in simple, cost-effective screening and treatment methods for cervical cancer prevention. PINCC has provided training in around 14 countries through Central America, East Africa and Asia. In 2025 alone PINCC teams screened 3025 women across nine clinics.
I volunteered on a PINCC trip to Malawi for the first time in 2025 with two Australian colleagues, Drs Gillian McDowell and Graham Carey. Our job was to train local healthcare workers in a simple, WHO approved technique to visualise pre-cancerous changes on the cervix using common household vinegar and inspection with the naked eye. (Visual inspection with acetic acid – VIA)
The impact in Malawi
What struck me most in Malawi was how happy these women were to have the chance to be screened and how delighted they were to be given the “all clear”. We screened nearly 700 women over those three weeks and learned many of them had a relative or a friend who had died from cervical cancer. I have been a doctor for forty years, working largely in reproductive and sexual health. Until my trip to Malawi, I had never seen a cervical cancer, despite having done thousands of cervical screening tests. In three weeks in Malawi, I saw two.
Of course, when a pre-cancerous change is found, it needs to be treated. In most remote clinics this means sending women to a central hospital. There are many barriers in developing countries to women accessing this essential step, so PINCC also trains healthcare workers to use a portable, rechargeable device to effectively treat the abnormal cells using heat at the time of diagnosis and donates a device, the Liger thermos-coagulator (https://www.ligermedical.com/product/tc-thermocoagulator), to the trained providers.
Making positive, sustainable contributions to change
Our Australian team is very proud of the work done by PINCC and our small part in it. In 2026 we returned to Malawi and trained three of our previous trainees to become PINCC trainers and carry on expanding the sustainability of cervical screening locally. This train-the-trainer program is also being run in Bolivia this year.
As Australians, we know we punch above out weight in cervical cancer prevention globally. This has encouraged us to develop our recently launched project through Rotary Australia World Community Service to encourage Australian donors to support PINCC’s work through tax deductible donations. These donations will be used to supply PINCC with point-of-care HPV test kits and Liger thermo-coagulation devices.
You can read more about PINCC and our project and make donations to support our work at https://directory.rawcs.com.au/9-2026-27 and at https://www.pincc.ngo/. I am also happy to come and talk to local organisations or groups interested in our project.
Learn more about the project and make a tax deductable donation via QR code below.
