Browsing by Author "Maver, Polona J. (14056550100)"

The burden of cervical cancer in central and eastern Europe is generally higher compared to western or northern Europe due to a history of mostly opportunistic cervical cancer screening practices and due to the strong influence of political and economic changes in post-communist transition. This article describes the current cervical cancer screening practices, organizational plans for the future, and main obstacles that need to be overcome in 16 countries in central and eastern Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Unfortunately, only a few countries have managed to establish an organized and well-functioning cervical cancer screening program in recent years, whereas most countries in the region are still struggling with implementation-related issues of organized cervical cancer screening. Encouragingly, even in the countries where only opportunistic screening is performed, well-prepared plans and strategies have been established for switching to organized screening in the near future.

We present a review of the current implementation status of vaccination against human papillomaviruses (HPV) and available data concerning the burden of HPV infection and HPV type-specific distribution in 16 central and eastern European countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. At least one current HPV prophylactic vaccine is registered in all central and eastern European countries except Montenegro. Six counties-Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Romania, Slovenia, and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia-have integrated the HPV vaccination into their national immunization program and currently provide routine vaccination free of charge to the primary target population. Ten countries have not integrated HPV vaccination into the national immunization program. The key reasons for lack of implementation of HPV vaccination into the national immunization program are the high vaccine cost and negative public perception. Vaccination of males is not recommended in any country in the region.