In Addis Ababa, a quiet study of 334 women who felt entirely well has surfaced a warning that silence does not mean safety: one in five HIV-positive women carry high-risk HPV, a virus that, in bodies where immunity is already strained, does not leave but transforms. The findings, drawn from Ethiopia's largest specialized hospital, place a familiar tragedy in sharper focus — cervical cancer, the leading cancer killer of women across Sub-Saharan Africa, is seeded long before it announces itself. Science has mapped the danger; what remains is the will to act before the cells do.
HPV infections and cervical abnormalities widespread among HIV-positive women in Ethiopia
HIV-positive women in Ethiopia face elevated cervical cancer risk from persistent HPV infection, a leading cancer death cause in Sub-Saharan Africa.