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A new immunization campaign gets underway soon to protect 180,000 girls in developing countries from cervical cancer. The GAVI Alliance made the announcement Monday, World Cancer Day (2/4). Most cervical cancer is caused by certain types of the human papillomavirus, or HPV. It’s transmitted through sex. Dr. Seth Berkley says it takes an enormous toll. “A woman dies every two minutes from cervical cancer. This kills more women than childbirth. The estimated number now is 275,000 women dying of this cancer each year – 85 percent in the developing world. This is a cancer that’s growing. So without an intervention the estimate was that there would be by 2030 430,000 deaths a year,” he said. The GAVI Alliance CEO dispelled some myths about cancer. “One of the interesting things, of course, is that cancers are considered to be non-communicable diseases and of course this is a misnomer. Although cancer is a disease that certainly sometimes is caused by genetic and other abnormalities, a larger percentage of the cancers actually are infectious. The other thing is that we think of cancer as being a disease of the developed world when in fact, of course, there’s an enormous amount of cancer in the developing world,” he said. Many other vaccines are given to babies or very young children. The HPV vaccine is given to girls between the ages of nine and 13. It’s only effective before someone is infected with the virus. | 
