<![CDATA[HPV Awareness day: towards cervical cancer elimination]]>

Why an HPV Awareness Day?
Through the work of many scientists in the International Papillomavirus Society (IPVS) and around the world, excellent tools have become available to prevent HPV infection though vaccination, and to better diagnose HPV infection to facilitate screening and secondary prevention of cervical cancer. The advent of these tools has led to a call for elimination of cervical cancer by the World Health Organization, a development that IPVS strongly supports. At the same time, there are key gaps in knowledge among the general population that if addressed, would greatly facilitate the campaign to eliminate cervical cancer, along with other HPV-related cancers that affect both men and women. One of those gaps is awareness of the causative agent of these cancers, HPV.

We believe that awareness of HPV is an important step toward accelerating the implementation of the new tools at our disposal to eliminate cervical and other HPV-related cancers. The International HPV Awareness Day campaign therefore has a global focus on both women and men with a broad age range.

Who is the driving force of the HPV Awareness Day?
International HPV Awareness Day is an initiative of IPVS. This initiative is being implemented in partnership with more than 40 organizations around the world. IPVS believes that increasing the knowledge among the general public of HPV specifically is an important part of the campaign to eliminate HPV-related cancers. By raising awareness of HPV itself, we help people to understand that both men and women are affected by HPV-related disease; that HPV infection is very common, hopefully reducing stigma associated with HPV infection, and that HPV infection is an issue that binds people of all ages, races, sex, gender and geographic location.

Which is the theme for the 2019 campaign?
The theme of the 2019 International HPV Awareness Day Campaign is “Uncover the most viral secret: Ask About HPV”. The campaign makes the point that we spend a lot of time and energy spreading information that has limited social value; what if instead of “going viral” about sneezing pandas and dress colors, we communicated with each other about viruses that have the potential to kill people, but which can at the same time be prevented from doing so? Having the knowledge is the first step toward taking action, be it getting the vaccine, being screened for cervical cancer and its precursors, encouraging others to be vaccinated or screened, and working with local authorities to improve access for all people to these life-saving measures. We hope that encouraging people to ask about HPV and learn more about this “viral secret” will stimulate people to get more information about HPV and to take preventive measures where possible.

Which activities will take place in the 2019 edition?
Most of the activities will be on International HPV Awareness Day itself, March 4 of every year, but we anticipate that going forward there will be campaign-related activities year-round. Campaign activities will include press releases, rallies, print ads and conversations on a wide variety of social media. People who see our campaign video (www.askaboutHPV.com) will hopefully share it with others and will be stimulated to obtain more information about HPV. This will be in the form of reading the FAQs on the campaign website targeted toward specific demographic groups, and to obtain information from our campaign partners around the world.

How is the 2019 campaign structured?
The campaign is a two-part effort. The first involves publicizing the campaign materials, is designed to attract people’s attention, pique their interest about HPV and start the conversation going. The same materials for this part of the campaign are going to be used worldwide but will be translated into the local language. As in the first year of the campaign, that will be English, French, Spanish, Hindi and Malay. The second part will give people the tools to educate themselves further about HPV and the measures that they can take for themselves or their loved ones to prevent HPV-related cancers. This part of the campaign is very local and our partner organizations in the different locations will provide web links to educational resources and other prevention tools that are suitable for that location.

What are the future perspectives for the HPV Awareness Day?
In the first year, we targeted 10 countries and we will target the same countries in the second year. In the future we expect to expand the number of countries in subsequent years of the campaign. And even though we are targeting 10 countries in 2019, IPVS has assembled a group of more than 40 organizations around the world who will promote the campaign in many other locations. In future years of the campaign we will expand the number of target countries, languages in which the materials are translated, and number and scope of campaign activities. And each year will have a slightly different theme. In 2019 we will also begin to collect data on the current knowledge of people in different locations about HPV and start the process of measuring the impact of our campaign on that knowledge.

When do you expect to see the impact of the HPV Awareness Day campaign? We do not expect to see dramatic changes in the level of awareness of HPV right away. However, we do expect that in the long run we will see measurable impact of the campaign as we implement it over several years, and as we adapt our messaging in response to the lessons learned.

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Joel Palefsky MD, FRCP(C)
Professor of Medicine University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
Joel.Palefsky@ ucsf.edu
Prof. J. Palefsky is the leader of the HPV awareness campaign promoted by the International Papillomavirus Society

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