ReThinkHPVaccination

Reducing inequalities in HPV vaccination

Romania has the highest levels of cervical cancer incidence and mortality in the EU: the incidence is 2.5 times higher than the European average and the mortality rate is over 4 times higher.

HPV is a main cause of cervical cancer. The country’s 2008 vaccination programme against HPV vaccinated less than 2% of the target population. Romania is therefore implementing a new HPV vaccination programme for girls aged 11-18 and a national cervical cancer screening programme.

These programmes should be backed up by communication and training for people involved in the process – from family doctors to schoolteachers.

The main goal of ReThinkHPVaccination is to support EU Member States and associated countries in rethinking their HPV vaccination campaigns. It will thus help to achieve the HPV vaccination and cancer prevention objectives of Europe's Beating Cancer Plan and Mission on Cancer.

The specific objectives of the project are to:

• develop a virtual HPV vaccination knowledge centre for countries with low vaccination rates and ensure synergy with the EU Knowledge Centre on Cancer;
• create a communication strategy for Romanian needs and an HPV vaccination behaviour matrix;
• develop and share guidelines for combating fake news about HPV vaccination and disseminate a short handbook in Romanian during an online media event;
• design, develop and share international training courses for HPV vaccination communication based on the behaviour matrix.