Mexico City, May 12, 2008 — Thirty-three thousand women in Latin America and the Caribbean die each year of preventable cervical cancer, caused by a virus that infects 20 percent of men and women in the region and as many as 30 percent of the youngest women, according to a new study. Dramatic new opportunities offered by better screening, treatment and the securing of an affordable vaccine for girls and young women could reduce the current death toll and prevent it from rising to 70,000 over the next two decades, say researchers who analyzed the regional impact of the human papillomavirus (HPV).

The findings are being presented in Mexico City at a conference to discuss cervical cancer control in Latin America and the Caribbean, convened by the World Health Organization (WHO), Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).