Nurse Knowledge of HPV Vaccination and Cervical Cancer Prevention in the UAE

Cervical cancer is the second commonest cancer in females worldwide. It is also the leading cause of death among middle-aged women. There are approximately 500,000 new cases of cervical cancer and 275,000 related deaths worldwide annually (IACR, 2008). In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), cervical cancer is the second commonest cancer in females. The Ministry of Health reported around 50-55 cases annually in the UAE with an incidence of 7 per 100,000 women; half of these cases occurring in relatively young women aged 35-55 years (HAAD, 2012). Similar incidence and trend was found on other studies from the gulf region (Nooyi et al., 2006). Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is a necessary cause for all cases of cervical cancer; it is the commonest sexually transmitted infection in the world (Schiffman and Castle, 2003) with 12% of females being infected at any time worldwide (Kjaer et al., 2008). The prevalence of HPV infection in other gulf countries was found to be similar to world prevalence (Hajja et al., 2006). HPV infection is also responsible for a wide range of cancers and other HPV related diseases. HPV 16 and 18 cause more than 70% of all cases of cervical cancers (Munoz et al., 2003); the rest are caused by other HPV sub-types. Cervical cancer can