Papilloma Virus vaccination commences today

In a bid to expand universal health coverage for all across the country, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) will today commence the vaccination of over 150 thousand girls aged 10 and above with Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccines for cervical cancer virus protection. According to the Program Manager, Children Health and Expand Program Immunization, Desmond Maada Kangbai, the vaccination will target girls between the ages of 10 and above and the exercise will take place in schools, health facilities, and also in communities.

In his PowerPoint presentation, the Program Manager said the Human Papilloma Virus also known as cervical cancer disease is the most common infection among women and adolescent girls with an estimated 1.9 women at risk. He disclosed that available data from the Sierra Leone cancer registry, cervical cancer was the second most frequent cancer among women in Sierra Leone. He added that it is the second most frequent cancer among women between the ages of 15 and 45 years, noting that the purpose of the vaccination is to protect girls and women from the disease.

“We might not say it is an immediate outcome, which is we are giving the vaccines but gradually as we are used to in the 70s and 90s we want to target girls within the ages of 15 and 90% of all girls within that before we end would have received their HPV vaccine. We are starting it now” he explained.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Clinical, MoHS, Dr. Mustapha Kabba expressed hope that the vaccination exercise of over two thousand cadencies doses will decrease the rate of cervical cancer in the country. “We are going to make sure we are able to provide universal health coverage for every Sierra Leoneans. And now rolling out a very active vaccination drive, this is one of the major arms of prevention measures in terms of ensuring that this disease does not affect our women. So we are asking, we are pleading to the populace that when the vaccination process starts let’s encourage our women, our girls to go out to take these vaccines” he encouraged.

He stressed that vaccination is one of the efforts by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in the elimination drive of cervical cancer to get 70% of women’s skin with a high-performance test by 35 years of age and again at 45 years of age and 90% of women identified with cervical cancer will receive free treatment. He said the HPV vaccination exercise will commence from October 3 to December and will target 153 thousand girls across the country.

By Mohamed Amara Gando