Fact Sheet
www.pinkribbonredribbon.org
Over the last 15 years, the global community has made great strides in containing the great pandemics of
infectious disease. Demographic and lifestyle changes now mean the developing world is facing another
challenge: non-communicable diseases, especially cancer. Women are particularly vulnerable. Cervical and
breast cancer are now the most-common cancers in women around the world.
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More than 85 percent of the global burden of cervical cancer (444,000 cases) occurs in developing countries.
A woman dies in the developing world every two minutes from cervical cancer: 230,000 deaths each year.
In Africa, cervical cancer has become the number-one cancer killer of women. More than 93,000 women develop
cervical cancer each year on the continent, and an estimated 57,000 die from the disease.
The Link between HIV/AIDS and Cervical Cancer
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While many of the major infectious and
non-communicable diseases act
independently of one another, cervical
cancer and HIV are fatally linked.
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HIV weakens the immune system, and
reduces the body’s ability to fight
opportunistic infections, such as the
human papillomavirus (HPV), which can
cause cervical cancer.
Unlike many other cancers, cervical cancer is largely preventable, because of the availability of the
vaccine against HPV, the slow development of the disease, the early detectability of pre-cancers, and
the ease of the single-visit “See-and-Treat” approach of visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) and
cryotherapy.
MEDIA INQUIRIES: Andrea Kirsten-Coleman | akirsten-coleman@bushcenter.org | 214.534.1846
The Global Catalyst
Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon® is the leading public-private partnership aimed at catalyzing the global community to reduce
deaths from cervical and breast cancer in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America by raising awareness of these diseases
and increasing access to quality services to detect and treat them. Launched in September 2011, the partnership’s
founders include the George W. Bush Institute, the United States Government through the U.S. President’s Emergency
Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), Susan G. Komen® and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The
partnership also includes corporate and foundation members – Becton, Dickinson and Company; the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation; the Caris Foundation; GlaxoSmithKline; IBM; Merck; Qiagen – and collaborating partners, such as the
National Breast Cancer Foundation and LiveStrong.
Goals
 Reduce deaths from cervical cancer by 25 percent
among women screened and treated in partner
countries;
 Achieve at least 80 percent coverage of vaccination
against the human papillomavirus (HPV);
 Screen at least 80 percent of the appropriate target
populations for pre-invasive cervical cancer, and treat
those found with lesions;
 Increase awareness of, and reduce stigma about,
breast and cervical cancer, and promote the early
detection of the disease; and
 Create and test innovative approaches to
sustainability, financing, service-delivery, and
laboratory and data systems that can be scaled-up and
used globally.
How We Work
By mobilizing resources from Governments, multilateral organizations, foundations and corporations, Pink Ribbon Red
Ribbon® and its partners work on a full continuum of interventions from prevention to palliative care by:
Educating
communities about
breast and cervical
cancer, and
enabling women to
access prevention,
diagnosis,
treatment, care
and support.
Vaccinating
girls against the
virus that causes
cervical cancer.
Screening
women for breast
and cervical
cancer.
Reach
Treating
women for cervical
pre-cancer with
simple, low-cost
methods: VIA,
cryotherapy, and
the loop
electrosurgical
excision procedure
(LEEP).
Ethiopia
(launched in
2014)
Tanzania
(launched in
2014)
Botswana
Training and
equipping
public and
private
providers to
screen for and
treat cervical
and breast
cancer
Impact

Namibia
Increasing
access to lifesaving
diagnostics,
products and
treatment, and
providing care
and support.
Zambia

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19,000 - number of girls vaccinated with all three
doses of HPV vaccinations in Zambia and Botswana
since 2011;
82,716 – number of women screened for cervical
cancer in Zambia since 2012;
6,346 – number of women screened for cervical
cancer in Botswana since July 2012;
3,872 – women screened for cervical cancer in
Tanzania since July 2013;
5,228 - screened for breast cancer in Tanzania
since July 2013.