You are going to be bored hearing me say this again and again. Vaccinating only girls against HPV is a strategic mistake.
1) HPV and cervical cancer will be eradicated more quicky through genderblind or genderneutral vaccination. Boys and girls.
2) Vaccinating only girls will lead to an antivaxxer backlash by those who worry about polluting women.
3) Vaccinating boys protects men against penile, anal, and oropharynx cancer. Vaccinating boys protects women against cervical cancer.
Jamie
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Government aims for 2020 start of cervical-cancer vaccination campaign
Aung Phay Kyi Soe
22 March 2019
The Ministry of Health and Sports has set a target of starting a nationwide vaccination drive for the prevention of cervical cancer and Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) by July 2020.
The campaign will be supported by public-private partnership Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF, a senior Department of Public Health official said.
“We have answered the questions that Gavi raised on our proposal for a nationwide vaccination campaign to prevent cervical cancer. We hope that Gavi will approve the campaign by the middle of this year,” said Dr Daw Htar Htar Lin, programme manager of the Department of Public Health’s Extended Programme on Immunisation.
The ministry submitted the proposal for the cervical cancer vaccination drive to Gavi in 2018. The government will pay 10 percent of the cost of the nationwide campaign, while Gavi will cover the rest.
The campaign hopes to provide vaccinations to over 450,000 girls aged 9 and 10 to protect them from cervical cancer. Girls are recommended to receive the HPV vaccine twice in their lives. Those who have been vaccinated are required to receive another dose 18 months later, experts with the programme said.
“The costs of the HPV vaccine for both doses per girl is expected to be around US$9 (K13,700) in Myanmar,” Dr Htar Htar Lin added.
According to Gavi statistics, one woman dies from cervical cancer every two minutes, or 266,000 a year, with roughly 80 percent of the deaths in developing countries. HPV vaccine can prevent up to 90pc of cervical cancer cases.
Gavi provided US$110 million in Myanmar for vaccination campaigns against measles, mumps and rubella, and other diseases.
https://www.mmtimes.com/news/govt-aims-2020-start-cervical-cancer-vaccination-campaign.html
