If young people were widely immunized, the most dangerous HP viruses that cause cervical cancer could be defeated. But Germany is far from that – unlike other countries.
Cervical cancer used to be often called “orphanmaker disease” because a particularly large number of young women died from it. Then there were preventive screenings and later a vaccination against the viruses that caused it. Both of these took away much of the horror of cervical cancer, at least in regions with good medical care. Theoretically, no woman should die from it today. But reality looks different. Worldwide, over 300,000 women succumb to cervical cancer every year, by far the largest proportion in regions where medical care is inadequate. In Germany there are still more than 1,500 dead women every year, and in almost all cases preventive examinations were missed.