State to launch HPV vaccination drive today

Kolkata: Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari will flag off the HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccination programme for teenaged girls from Bidhannagar Subdivisional Hospital on Saturday.While most states in India started the pan-India vaccination drive in Feb, the implementation in Bengal got delayed owing to the assembly elections.“We are finally rolling out the vaccination campaign in the presence of the CM. Apart from Bidhannagar Subdivisional Hospital, vaccination will be held at 200-plus centres in Bengal on Saturday,” said a senior health department official. These vaccination centres include various tiers of govt health facilities, including medical colleges, hospitals, sub-divisional and block health facilities.Experts said that HPV accounted for 99.7% of all cervical cancer cases in women and the vaccine could play a vital role in protecting women against this cancer. Experts pointed out that cervical cancer, caused by HPV, was the second-most common cancer in women after breast cancer. As the virus was sexually transmitted, the aim was to vaccinate girls before they became sexually active, an health official said. Girls, who have attained the age of 14 but yet to turn 15, will be covered in the first phase of the campaign. The official said Gardasil-4 (Quadrivalent) vaccine, which would be used, protected against HPV types 16, 18, 6 and 11.“In Bengal the estimated number of girls in this age bracket is around 7.5 lakh. The Centre has sent enough vaccine stock to cover this target group,” said the official.Another official said the health department received 7,72,650 doses of the vaccine from the Centre in early March and the stock had reached different districts days ahead of the launch. The department was also conducting training to ensure the programme was conducted smoothly.Health officials indicated the campaign would be ramped up by involving schools and that the health department was working on a micro-plan so that all eligible girls were covered. “We aim to wrap up the vaccination campaign within three months after ensuring all girls in that age group are covered,” said another senior health official.