Giving Compass' Take:

• According to Global Citizen, if Australia continues with current vaccination and screening programs, the country could be cervical-cancer free within the next 20 years. 

• How can other countries follow Australia's lead in this area? What are the most effective methods to making sure every woman has access to screening and other preventative measures around the world? 

• Read more about efforts to prevent cervical cancer here.

In a global first, Australia is on track to see cervical cancer regarded as a rare cancer — instead of a common disease — by 2020, and considered so infrequent by 2038 that it will be "eliminated as a public health problem."

The projection has been described in new research from Cancer Council Australia, which credits the government's widespread vaccination program against the cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV) as the reason for the decline in cervical cancer cases.

"The age-standardized annual incidence of cervical cancer will decrease to fewer than six new cases per 100,000 women by 2020 and to fewer than four new cases per 100,000 women by 2028,” research published in the Lancet Public Health Journal and released by the Cancer Council this month revealed.

“If high-coverage vaccination and screening is maintained, at an elimination threshold of four new cases per 100,000 women annually, cervical cancer could be considered to be eliminated as a public health problem in Australia within the next 20 years," the research added.

Read the full article about ending cervical cancer in Australia by Madeleine Keck at Global Citizen.