HPV Vaccination Advocate: Cathy Ndiaye from PATH

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection, and it can cause cervical and other cancers. After a person contracts HPV, cancer often takes years, even decades, to develop.

But HPV infection is preventable. It is important to vaccinate young girls before they are exposed—this is Cathy Ndiaye’s passion.

Cathy is a public health expert, epidemiologist, and Director of HPV Vaccine Programs at PATH. Cathy began her career working in laboratories at the Harvard School of Public Health, doing research on malaria and drug resistance.

“I spent four years working on a project trying to understand why malaria was drug resistant,” Cathy says.

Driven by the desire to lead disease prevention and control efforts in communities, Cathy pursued Master of Public Health and PhD degrees, writing her PhD thesis on HPV-related cancers, and pursuing a post-doctoral study in cervical cancer treatment at the University of Montreal, Canada.

Since completing her doctorate, Cathy has been working on HPV and prevention of cervical cancer. Today, at PATH, Cathy’s role focuses on HPV prevention. She supports ministries of health and the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) to introduce the HPV vaccine. Typhoid, family planning, and noncommunicable diseases are also part of her portfolio.

“Generally, I work on HPV and cervical cancer prevention through vaccination. I support vaccination programs, mainly HPV programs, as well as new vaccines when they are introduced,” Cathy says. “For now, my role is all about prevention and vaccination.”

She continues, “I am very passionate when it comes to saving lives, especially girls and women. Cervical cancer affects women at 40 to 50 years old, and the financial and social burden before and after the death of women is high on the family. In Africa, women play very crucial roles in the family, and it is heartbreaking for me to see them die and leave young children at a time when we really need them.”