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Fortunate Gora Mash West Correspondent
More than 80 000 girls drawn from different schools in Mashonaland West province were successfully vaccinated against the Human Papiloma Virus (HPV) during a vaccination programme rolled out by the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
The programme, which was targeting girls between the ages of 10 to 15 years, was meant to reduce the chances of adolescent girls developing cervical cancer.
In an interview recently, Mashonaland West provincial health promotion officer Mr George Kambondo said despite resistance by the girls’ parents in the province, Government achieved a 98 percent uptake of the HPV vaccine among girls.
“We managed to vaccinate 80 361 in schools and 6 124 girls out of school,” he said.” We managed to maintain the Expanded Programme on Immunisation despite the encountered challenges.”
Mr Kambondo said additional teams had to be sent to other districts such as Hurungwe, Chegutu, Mhondoro, Sanyati and Kariba after deployed staff was overwhelmed.
“These had to get additional teams after the few allocated teams failed to fulfil the demand on schools,” he said.
Mr Kambondo said there was need to conscientise some rural communities about the importance of having their children vaccinated as some subscribed to religious and cultural norms incompatible with modern medicine.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), the risk of getting cervical cancer far outweighs common adverse vaccine side-effects such as headache and dizziness. Some of the side effects which includes infertility, difficulty in breathing and restriction of the airways are rare and experienced in less than one in 10 000 people who have received the HPV vaccine.
In a national report by Government, 86 percent of the targeted girls were vaccinated. The remaining 14 percent, which is about 130 000, is still a large number that continues to worry authorities.
Online Reporter