The BBVA Foundation recognizes Nubia Muñoz for enabling the achievement of an effective vaccine against cervical cancer, one of the main causes of death among women in developing countries
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Development Cooperation category goes, in this tenth edition, to the Colombian epidemiologist Nubia Muñoz, whose work was instrumental in establishing that infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) is the principal and necessary cause of cervical cancer. Her studies played a catalytic role in the development of anti-virus vaccines capable of preventing 70% of all cervical cancers, a disease where 80% of cases involve women in developing countries.
27 February, 2018
Dr. Muñoz (Cali, Colombia, 1940), says the jury, “established the epidemiological relationship between papillomavirus and cervical cancer,” and her work “has been a true catalyst for vaccine development and subsequent application throughout the world, including the most affected countries.” “This was the first vaccine,” the citation points out, “specifically targeting the prevention of cancer.”
