{ _image:alt }

CHILI: Community-based HPV screening Implementation in Low-Income countries

Cambodia, Mozambique, Uganda

Cervical cancer is the 4th most common cancer in women worldwide. Early detection of precancer has shown to be successful in reducing cancer incidence and mortality. However, there are substantial inequalities in terms of cervical cancer burden with up to nine in ten women who die from cervical cancer living in low- and middle-income countries.

Background

A global implementation of screening services is hampered by differences between countries with regard to resources, availability and quality of preventive strategies.

Our vision is a world where all women receive equal opportunities to protect themselves against preventable diseases. The CHILI consortium aims to comprehend current screening practices and challenges to define and implement new strategies, including the ELEVATE screening test, that meet the conditions of the local context and the preferences of the local women. We aim to assure sustainability and integration within the local health system while implementing and evaluating the new screening strategy in order to support the countries to move towards universal screening.

Aims

  1. To understand current screening practices and to define new strategies that include the ELEVATE self-sampling test and meet the conditions and requirements of the local context to increase screening coverage in the selected low-income countries.

  2. To adapt and upscale the ELEVATE screening device to be used as a universal screening test in low-income countries.

  3. Health technology assessment of the adapted ELEVATE screening device, determining its user-acceptability, uptake and cost-effectiveness, by implementing and evaluating the new screening strategies in the selected low-income countries.

Project plan

The approach of the CHILI project is three-fold: social science investigations will be conducted to understand current screening practices and to define a tailored strategy, including the ELEVATE tool, embedded in the current health system. Secondly, engineers will validate the self-testing device and will adapt it to reduce the unit price and to enable large-scale manufacturing at an affordable cost. Finally, public health specialists and health economists will evaluate the implementation of the new screening tool to assess its appropriateness and cost-effectiveness.

For the latter objective, an intervention will be implemented: in the first arm, the different steps of current cervical cancer screening practices will be optimized (awareness, pre-and post-counselling and referral). In the second arm, the same strategy will be applied combined with the new point-of-care screening device. Integral part of CHILI is to maximize the use of the new screening tool in low-resource settings in collaboration with national stakeholders and health care providers.

Publications and output

You may visit the project website for more information.

Principal investigators

  • Olivier Degomme University of Ghent, Belgium

Team members

  • Elizaveta Padalko University of Ghent, Belgium

  • Piet Cools University of Ghent, Belgium

  • Jan Vanfleteren University of Ghent, Belgium

  • Sónia Dias Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

  • Steffen Fleßa Universität Greifswald, Germany

  • Rainer Gransee Fraunhofer Institute for Microengineering and Microsystems, Germany

  • Zeleke Mekonnen Jimma University, Ethiopia

  • Por Ir NIPH, Cambodia

  • Phil Biggs Labman Automation Ltd, United Kingdom

  • Luis Fernandez microLIQUID, United States

  • Ciara O’Sullivan Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain

  • Khátia Munguambe Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique

  • Ali Ssetaala, UVRI-IAVI HIV Vaccine Program, Uganda

  • Gust Schols Fundico, Belgium

Would this content be useful for a friend or colleague?

Navigation