NECST-HIV - HPV-based Cervical Cancer Screening Among Women Living with HIV

NECST-HIV focuses on women for whom cervical-cancer prevention is especially urgent. Women living with HIV have higher cervical-cancer risk, yet screening, triage and treatment may still sit outside the routines of HIV care. The project asks whether HPV-based cervical screening can be integrated into an established HIV-care platform in a way that strengthens prevention without creating new fragmentation.

The study is a linked but distinct component of the wider NECST scientific programme. It adapts the HPV-based screening pathway to HIV Care and Treatment Clinics, connecting screening with result management, risk assessment, triage, treatment and repeat screening. Digital and navigation tools can support reminders and continuity, but they are treated as enabling parts of care rather than as the outcome of the project.

The importance of the work lies in service integration. Women may already have repeated contact with HIV services, creating an opportunity to deliver cervical prevention within a trusted and familiar care relationship. That opportunity can only be realized if clinic workflow, staff roles, data systems and referral services fit together. Adding a new test to an HIV visit is not enough if a positive result creates an unfamiliar second cascade that women must navigate alone.

NECST-HIV therefore asks a practical implementation question: can two long-term care pathways reinforce one another? The project studies how to use the strengths of HIV care - continuity, repeated contact and organized follow-up - while ensuring cervical screening and treatment are completed appropriately.