The overall aim of the Joint Action “Strategies for Health Interventions to Eliminate Infection related Cancer” (SHIELD) is to decrease premature morbidity and mortality caused by communicable diseases, in particular cancers caused by infections and vaccine-preventable cancers.
SHIELD aims to develop a comprehensive prevention programme across Europe by integrating diverse strategies and stakeholders, including civil society, health authorities, and scientific experts. The project focuses on identifying and overcoming structural and individual barriers to implementation, addressing stigma and discrimination—particularly for HIV and other infections—and scaling preventive measures across countries. Using modelling, SHIELD seeks to determine the optimal mix of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention strategies to reduce infection-related cancers, going beyond vaccination coverage to maximize impact.
The SHIELD Consortium consists of 68 partners from 25 European countries, 21 are Member States: Denmark, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden.
The additional 4 are: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Norway and Ukraine.