Lara Adejoro
About 4.95 million girls aged nine to 14 have been vaccinated so far against the Human Papillomavirus in the first phase of the vaccination across 15 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
This was revealed by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate on Friday in Abuja at the sectoral ministerial press briefing to mark the first anniversary of President Bola Tinubu in office.
PUNCH Healthwise reports that HPV is a common sexually transmitted infection that has a silent harbinger of several types of cancers, including cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women aged 15 to 49 years.
Nigeria contributes an estimated 12,075 new cases of global cervical cancer annually.
HPV infection has been identified as a high-risk factor, implicated in 95 per cent of cervical cancer cases.
With 12,000 new diagnoses and 8,000 lives claimed each year, this means that 33 new cervical cancer cases and 22 deaths occur every day across the country.
The Federal Government introduced the Human Papillomavirus vaccine into the routine immunisation system on October 24, 2023, in 15 states, and the FCT.
The first phase encompassed Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Enugu, Jigawa, Kano, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ogun, Osun, Taraba, and the FCT.
The second phase of the HPV vaccination has been scheduled to start on Monday, May 27, in Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Ondo, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Yobe, and Zamfara states.
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