Last week in Gaborone, Botswana, Laura and I sat in a room in Tlokweng Main Clinic, which recently started screening and treating women for cervical cancer. With us was Leithailwe Wale, a 40-year-old diagnosed with the disease. Thanks to early detection and treatment, she is alive and healthy.
Good news like Leithailwe's is becoming increasingly common in five African countries where Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon is operating. Since leaving the White House, Laura and I have been heartbroken to learn that because women with HIV are more likely to have cervical cancer, people who had been saved from AIDS were needlessly dying from another treatable, preventable disease. So at the Bush Institute, we formed this global public-private partnership to fight women's cancers.
In the past six years, more than 370,000 women have been screened for cervical cancer and 24,000 for breast cancer through Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon. More than 119,000 girls have been vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, which can lead to cervical and other cancers. Cervical cancer deaths could end on the continent in 30 years.
Although we are on the verge of an AIDS-free generation, the people of Africa still need our help. The American people deserve credit for this success, and should keep going until the job is done.
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George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, founded the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas.
Editorial on 04/11/2017