Cervical Cancer-Free Futures Project: Using AI to Protect the Next Generation of Women
A preventable cancer that still takes too many lives
Cervical cancer is one of the few cancers we know how to prevent. Yet in South Africa it still causes around 10,700 new cases and 5,870 deaths every year, and the Eastern Cape is among the hardest-hit provinces.
A safe HPV vaccine has been offered to schoolgirls since 2014, and HPV testing can catch risk years before cancer develops. The problem is reach: too few girls complete their vaccination, and fewer than one in five women are screened. Many women have never heard of HPV at all.
What Cervical Cancer-Free Futures is
Cervical Cancer-Free Futures is a three-year programme in Nelson Mandela Bay, run by EPCON together with our long-standing partner AQUITY Innovations, with the support and funding of the DPG Family Foundation. It brings prevention closer to the girls and women who need it most.
The approach builds on what already worked for TB in the same metro. There, EPCON’s AI mapping helped local GPs and community health workers screen almost 162,000 people in a year and find 737 people with TB. We now apply that same model of data, local doctors and community outreach to cervical cancer.
Four objectives
More girls vaccinated. Reach 60,000 girls aged 9 to 15 with a first HPV dose over three years, and help 90% of them complete the course. Trusted local voices, or “nano-influencers”, will carry the message on social media and in communities.
More women tested for HPV. Test 27,000 women aged 30 to 55, two-thirds of them with self-collection kits they can use privately, without long clinic queues.
Screening and care at the local GP. Bring a network of private GPs into the programme so women can be screened, followed up and treated close to home.
Proof that self-testing works here. Show that self-collection is acceptable, effective and affordable in Nelson Mandela Bay, so it can be scaled up.
The AI platform supports to identify gaps, at risk population and support the planning of activities.
Why it matters for the community
For girls, a vaccine today means lifelong protection against the HPV types behind most cervical cancers.
For women, a private self-test and a familiar local doctor remove the queues, cost and embarrassment that keep many from being screened. Problems found early can be treated on the spot, before they become cancer.
For families and the wider community, fewer women lost to cervical cancer means mothers, carers and earners who stay healthy and present.
Looking ahead
South Africa has committed to the WHO goal of eliminating cervical cancer: 90% of girls vaccinated, 70% of women screened and 90% of those in need treated. Cervical Cancer-Free Futures is a practical step toward those targets in one metro, with lessons we will share with the Department of Health and partners so the model can grow nationally.
