Cervical Cancer Burden in Africa: An Integrative Review of Epidemiology, Plant Medicine, and AI-Driven Innovation

Cervical cancer imposes a heavy burden in low- and middle-income countries and persistently high incidence and mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa due to unequal access to prevention and care. Although human papillomavirus (HPV) is a major driving factor, the risk is amplified by HIV co-infection, socioeconomic barriers, limited infrastructure, low health literacy, and behavioral factors, leading to frequent late-stage diagnosis, low screening coverage, and poor survival. Recent expansion of HPV vaccination programs since 2019 has achieved high coverage in some countries, but continent-wide rates remain below targets amid hesitancy, inequities, and systemic weaknesses. Thus, there is a critical need for an integrated synthesis of multidisciplinary evidence that reflects the peculiarities and diversities of African health systems. Moreover, high mortality rates underscore the need for integrated, context-specific evidence to strengthen vaccination, screening, and management strategies in line with WHO global elimination targets. Plant medicine promises to complement mainstream health delivery in low resource settings. Emerging artificial intelligence (AI) tools show strong potential to improve screening accuracy, reduce subjectivity and resource needs, and enhance early detection in resource-limited settings. This review synthesizes multidisciplinary data on economic impact, epidemiology, risk factors, prevention, diagnostic challenges, plant medicine and AI innovations to guide equitable progress in diverse African contexts.