West Africa Self-Sampling HPV Based Cervical Cancer Control Program (WA-SS-HCCP) for WLWHA: Barriers, challenges, and needs

This proposed research is responding to RFA-CA-21-056 and aims to leveraging our decade-long, extensive, and successful training partnership and research collaborations in Mali and Nigeria to implement a novel West African Self-Sampling HPV-Based Cervical Cancer Control Program (WA-SS-HCCP) in these two countries. The project capitalizes on existing strengths and resources including the HIV systems of care with Community Health Workers (CHWs) who have established relationships with women living with HIV/AIDS (WLWH) and can provide HPV and CC education/counseling, guidance for SS by women, rapid collection and transport of SS specimens to hospital laboratories, personalized delivery of test results directly to the women, and facilitation of clinic referrals for women for advanced diagnostics and treatment and experienced and fully-equipped laboratories for HPV testing in all sites. The study will conduct in-depth needs assessment of barriers and challenges to implementation, contextually adapt, and implement and evaluate the program. This proposed strategy of HPV self-sampling and CC prevention can be maintained even after the study is completed, and can be expanded to other cancers and infectious diseases.