India, April 29 -- Under the leadership of the Ministry of Public Health and with the support of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), UNICEF, and the World Health Organization (WHO), Burundi has just launched, on April 29, 2026, the vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer.

This major milestone marks a decisive turning point in the fight against cervical cancer, a preventable disease that remains one of the leading causes of death among women in Burundi. From 2017 to 2022, about 1,581 new cases were diagnosed, of which 1,126 resulted in death, illustrating the scale of the public health challenge.

Globally, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer. In Burundi, it is among the most common cancers...