This guide outlines quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA) considerations to support introduction or scale-up of visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) as a screening test for cervical cancer, within the context of national comprehensive cervical cancer prevention and control programmes.

Women's cancers, including breast, cervical and ovarian cancer, lead to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths among women. Investments and programmes to prevent and treat women's cancers such as cervical cancer have improved and led to strong reductions in high income countries.

In 2008, cervical cancer was responsible for 275 000 deaths, of which about 88% occurred in low- and middle-income countries.

Part 1. Standard grade criteria for grading of evidence and diverse recommendations