Screening looks for cancer, or for the changes that come before it. It is for people who feel well and have noticed nothing. That is what separates it from a test done because something has been noticed. Ethiopia’s cervical screening programme is opportunistic. It is offered when a woman reaches a facility, rather than by invitation. Asking for it is usually the first step.
Key facts
- Ethiopia’s estimated cancer burden for 2024 was 79,239 new cases and 46,841 deaths (opens in a new tab). Breast cancer and cervical cancer were the two most common cancers in Ethiopian women that year. Breast cancer accounted for an estimated 18,840 cases and 8,812 deaths, cervical cancer for 8,159 cases and 5,007 deaths. These are modelled estimates, not counted diagnoses. They are extrapolated from partial subnational registration.
- Abnormal cells on the cervix usually take 15 to 20 years to become cancer (opens in a new tab). In a woman whose HIV is untreated, they take 5 to 10 years. Pre-cancerous changes rarely cause symptoms.
- In 2019, 4% of Ethiopian women aged 30–49 had ever been screened (opens in a new tab) for cervical cancer. 3% had been screened within the previous five years.
- WHO AFRO recorded in November 2025 that more than 80% of Ethiopian cervical cancer cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage (opens in a new tab). It attributes this to screening access, awareness and socioeconomic barriers.
What screening asks, and what an assessment asks
A screening test is offered on the basis of age or another characteristic. It is offered to people who have felt nothing. An assessment is what follows a symptom someone has already noticed. A person who has noticed a change goes to a health worker rather than waiting for a screening round. A person who feels entirely well is the person screening is designed for.
The interval that makes cervical screening possible
Persistent infection with human papillomavirus causes about 95% of cervical cancers. The abnormal cells it produces usually take 15 to 20 years to become cancer. Both figures are from WHO’s cervical cancer fact sheet. WHO’s minimum standard is built on that interval. It is a screen by age 35 and again by 45, rather than an annual test.
What can be done in that interval is short and specific. If a screening test is negative the woman is told when to come back. If it is positive, the abnormal area is located and treated. Treatment is usually thermal ablation or cryotherapy, which destroy the abnormal cells, or a heated wire loop that removes them. Where the service is set up for it, the treatment happens at the same visit as the test.
How Ethiopia’s cervical programme is set up
The target age range is 30–49, and 15–49 for women living with HIV. The routine test is visual inspection with acetic acid. WHO’s 2030 coverage target of 70% is written for high-performance tests. That means HPV DNA or an equivalent molecular test.
The rural and underserved communities page sets out how the programme is designed to reach people outside the main centres.
What this means in Ethiopia
Screening has been actively offered at scale once. In a month-long campaign across six regions from 7 November 2025, 275,607 women were screened against a target of 267,662 (opens in a new tab). 9,882 pre-cancerous lesions were found, and about 7,836 were treated at the same visit. Partners put the annual requirement for reaching the 2030 targets at about 2.6 million women screened. That means the campaign covered roughly a tenth of one year’s requirement — a CPR – Ethiopia calculation from those two figures.
Eighty-seven primary health care facilities were equipped under a donor-funded programme. That is the one facility count on the record.
Out-of-pocket payment was 46% of Ethiopian health expenditure in 2023 (WHO Global Health Observatory, indicator GHED_OOPSCHE_SHA2011). That is an average across a population, most of whom are not being treated for cancer in a given year. It is a reason to ask what a visit will cost before travelling to it.
What you can do
- If you are a woman aged 30 or over, ask whether cervical screening is offered where you seek care. Ethiopia’s programme is opportunistic, so it is usually not raised unless you raise it. What cervical screening involves sets out the visit itself.
- If you are living with HIV, ask about screening from age 25 and every three to five years. Cervical changes progress faster when HIV is untreated.
- Take a change you have noticed to a health worker rather than waiting for a screening round. The breast page sets out what to do about a change noticed in a breast.
- Before travelling for a screening test, ask what the visit will involve and what it will cost. Where to get screened sets out the questions to ask at any health facility.
- Vaccination does not replace screening. A girl vaccinated against HPV still needs screening as an adult.