32 percent - that is the coverage of cervical cancer screening in Macedonia, according to the latest analysis from the ESE association. The target set in the health strategies was 70 percent. The gap between 32 and 70 is - human life.

Cervical cancer is one of the most predictable malignancies. It is almost entirely linked to HPV. There is a vaccine. There is screening. There is treatment in early stages. In other words - this is a disease that can be stopped before it even starts.

But in Macedonia screening is not enforced in practice. The system is available - but without active outreach, without tracking women by age, without an integrated database. Gynaecologists recommend tests. Women postpone them. The health insurance fund does not call them. The cycle has been the same for decades.

The outcome is predictable. Cancer cases are detected in late stages, when treatment is expensive, brutal, and often unsuccessful. Women die from a disease that, in countries that built proper screening, barely exists anymore. Bulgaria, for example, has 70 percent coverage. Croatia over 60.

ESE is calling for integrated national screening. It is not expensive - there are international models. But it requires political will, which in Macedonia is in shortest supply for healthcare, because what is preferred are visible, progressive-looking initiatives. Cancer screening does not open stadiums. It does not cut ribbons. It does not host press conferences with declarations. It only saves lives. And in this kind of public discourse market, that is not enough.

The question health institutions have to answer: how many women have to die before screening becomes the standard? We already have the numbers - 32 versus 70. What is left to calculate is how many lives have been lost because of those 38 missing percentage points.