PESHAWAR: Health department has planned to start human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination campaign to safeguard girls aging nine to 14 years against cervical cancer.
The director of expanded programme on immunisation, Dr Asghar Ali, told this scribe that free vaccination would start in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa next year in September. He said that HPV vaccine was safe as it was being administered to girls in many countries, including Muslim countries, and there was no report of complications.
He said that estimated three million girls would get free vaccination across the province during the campaign.
The EPI chief said that the vaccine would be imported from abroad through federal government for which the province would pay 50 per cent of its total cost and the rest would come from Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi). The provinces of Punjab and Sindh have already started the campaign while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan will start it next year.
Health experts reject the notion that HPV causes infertility
Dr Ali said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had the services of more than 20,000 lady health workers and lady health visitors, who would immunise the target population. “These LHWs have already been working in the community and are known by people due to which the drive will go smoothly,” he added.
Gynaecologists at medical teaching institutions told this scribe that it was very good step by the government to provide free HPV vaccine to girls as cervical cancer killed 64 per cent of the affected women. They said that cervical cancer was not a common disease in the province. They said that sex workers were the most vulnerable group to the disease.
They rejected the impression that HPV caused infertility. They said that more than 150 countries were using the injections to safeguard women against cervical cancer that affected an estimated 5,000 persons in Pakistan annually. “It is total safe and effective and all eligible people should get it. It is now part of the EPI programme,” they said.
Health experts said that it was totally wrong that the vaccine caused infertility. The opportunity shouldn’t be missed as the ailment killed more than 3,000 women in Pakistan every year and vaccination was the only way to reduce mortalities.
“The government should scale up awareness regarding the efficacy of HPV so that people could receive them. We need to motivate parents, teachers, students and community elders to pave way for vaccination, otherwise, it will be taken as polio vaccination and people will feel hesitancy,” a senior gynaecologist told this scribe.
She said that unfounded propagation adversely impacted not only polio vaccination but people also showed unwillingness against vaccination during Covid-19. As Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would administer HPV for the first time, there was greater need to ensure its acceptability, she added.
Another gynaecologist at one of the medical teaching institutions in Peshawar told Dawn that they were examining girls in outpatients departments and were advising HPV to them. She termed the campaign by the government a blessing for girls.
“It (the vaccination drive) will also create awareness about cervical cancer and people will start thinking about the disease. It is third most common cancer among women that often goes undiagnosed,” she said.
The gynaecologist said that many people came to know about the disease when it reached third stage and patients turned to surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, which were very expensive and the survival chances were very dim, therefore, vaccination was the best option.
Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2025