Cervical Cancer Screening in Women Living with HIV in South Africa: Addressing Health Disparities Through…

ReviewInternational journal of women's health· 2026

Cervical Cancer Screening in Women Living with HIV in South Africa: Addressing Health Disparities Through Integrated Prevention Strategies.

Adegoke O Adefolalu

Public Health & General Preventive MedicineReviewQ1IF 2.6

Women with HIV had 52% higher all-cause mortality than HIV-negative women

Cervical Cancer Screening in Women Living with HIV in South Africa: Addressing Health Disparities Through Integrated Prevention Strategies.

Adegoke O Adefolalu

International journal of women's health · 2026

Background

South Africa confronts a syndemic triple burden of HIV, tuberculosis, and cervical cancer.

Methods

Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines and the Population-Exposure-Outcome (Population-Exposure-Outcome) framework (Population: Women living with HIV in South Africa; Exposure: cervical cancer screening and HIV integration strategies; Outcome: screening uptake, cascade completion, and mortality), five databases were searched (2015-2025) yielding 36 included sources.

Results

women with HIV faced higher all-cause mortality than HIV-negative women

AHR 1.52 (95% CI 1.06 to 2.19)

CI excludes the null - significant

More results

South Africa's cervical cancer mortality rose 12% between 2014 and 2018-paradoxically coinciding with high ART coverage.

Point-of-care single-visit screen-and-treat achieved same-day thermal ablation in 94.6% of eligible women in a South African primary care demonstration.

More results

Three structural cascade failure points-service silos, loss to follow-up, and treatment bottlenecks-explain the persistent policy-to-outcome gap.

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Conclusion · 1 of 2

Achieving WHO 90-70-90 targets in high-HIV-prevalence settings requires a fourth pillar-HIV-stratified delivery (90-70-90+H)-with Women living with HIV as a mandatory priority subpopulation.

Conclusion · 2 of 2

Cervical cancer screening for Women living with HIV must be reclassified as a standard component of HIV chronic care.

Cervical Cancer Screening in Women Living with HIV in South Africa: Addressing Health Disparities Through Integrated Prevention Strategies.

Cervical Cancer Screening in Women Living with HIV in South Africa: Addressing Health Disparities Through Integrated Prevention Strategies.

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