Centre yet to take a call on beginning HPV vaccination campaign for girls Doctors say that HPV vaccine is effective and can prevent more than 90% of HPV attributable cancers. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT The government’s immunisation advisory group has recommended vaccination for girls as part of the universal immunisation programme; the WHO says the HPV vaccine is effective for the prevention of HPV serotypes 16 and 18 years.
The Union Health Ministry said on Saturday that it was yet to take a decision on starting a vaccination campaign against human papillomavirus (HPV), despite reports that it is set to offer the vaccine from the second quarter of this year.
The National Technical Advisory Group for Immunisation (NTAGI) has recommended vaccination for adolescent girls between the ages of nine and 14.
The Ministry earlier said in June 2022 that after evaluating the fresh evidence on the cervical cancer burden and the effectiveness of a single dose of HPV vaccine, including clinical trial data and Sikkim’s experience with the vaccine, the NTAGI recommended the vaccine’s inclusion in the government’s universal immunisation programme.
Doctors say that HPV vaccine is effective and can prevent more than 90% of HP Vattributable cancers. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
This would involve a onetime catch up shot for girls in the nineto14 age group, followed by a routine introduction for others at the age of nine.
The WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) has said that the HPV vaccine is highly effective for the prevention of HPV serotypes 16 and 18, which cause 70% of cervical cancer.
‘Fishy’ vaccine trials
In India, the vaccine faced a major backlash over a decade ago, and the government got a rap on the knuckles from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare in its 2013 report, titled “Alleged irregularities in the conduct of studies using human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine by PATH in India’’
The committee took note of the reported deaths of some girls and adolescents in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh following HPV vaccine trials carried out by an American agency, the Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), in collaboration with the Gov. The committee had found the entire matter “very intriguing and fishy”. It observed that the choice of countries, and population groups, with unlimited market potential and opportunities in universal immunisation programmes, were all pointers to a well planned scheme to commercially exploit the situation.
It added that if PATH had then been successful in getting the HPV vaccine included in the universal immunisation programme of countries such as India, this would have generated windfall profits for the vaccine’s manufacturers by way of automatic sales, year after year, without any promotional or marketing expenses. The project was reportedly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, an American charity.
Globally, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women. In India, cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women, and India contributes to the largest proportion of the global cervical cancer burden, according to the Union government’s data. The vaccination can be
provided at a health facility, while for out of school girls, the campaign can be conducted through community outreach and mobile teams, the Ministry had said while alerting State governments to its efforts to initiate the campaign.
Effective shield…
“HPV vaccination works well and has the potential to prevent more than 90% of HPV attributable cancers,” said Sanjeev Kumar, a surgical oncologist at Manipal Hospital in Delhi. “Since HPV vaccination was first recommended in 2006, around 125 countries have introduced HPV vaccines, offering access to one in three girls aged 9 to 14 worldwide. Trials conducted in India and abroad have results that show an 81% reduced risk of HPV associated cancer in vaccinated women,” Mr.. Kumar said.