title: Estimating the costs of cervical cancer screening in high-burden Sub-Saharan African countries.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the capital investment and recurrent costs of national cervical cancer screening and precancer treatment programs in 23 high-incidence countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in order to provide estimates of the investment required to tackle the burden of cervical cancer in this region. These 23 countries account for 64% of the annual cervical cancer deaths in this region.
  
  
  METHODS
  Secondary data were used to estimate the financial costs of equipment purchases and economic costs of screening and treating eligible women over a 10-year period. Screening would be by visual inspection with acetic acid and treatment by cryotherapy or loop electrosurgical excision procedure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Approximately US $59 million would be required to purchase treatment equipment if cryotherapy were placed at every screening facility. Approximately 20 million women would be screened over 10 years. Cost per woman screened in a screen-and-treat program was either US $3.33 or US $7.31, and cost per woman treated was either US $38 or US $71 depending on the location of cryotherapy equipment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It would take less than US $10 per woman screened to significantly decrease the cervical cancer deaths that will occur in Sub-Saharan Africa over the next 10 years.
authors.affiliation: PATH, Technology Solutions Program, Seattle, USA. Electronic address: mmvundura@path.org.
authors.forename: Mercy
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mvundura
authors.affiliation: PATH, Reproductive Health Global Program, Seattle, USA.
authors.forename: Vivien
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tsu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017954:Africa South of the Sahara; D017679:Cryotherapy / Q000191:economics; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000191:economics*; D004864:Equipment and Supplies / Q000191:economics; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D018803:Models, Economic; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*
keywords: Cervical cancer; Economic costs; Financial costs; Scale up; Screening; Sub-Saharan Africa; Visual inspection with acetic acid