ABOUT TWO MILLION GIRLS GET CERVICAL CANCER VACCINE

Paul Pindani recently in MAKONDE

ABOUT two million girls, between the ages of nine and 15, have received cervical cancer vaccine.

This was revealed by Health and Child Care Minister, Dr Douglas Mombeshora, during a tour of Umboe Clinic.

He was in the company of a delegation from the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Switzerland.

Dr Mombeshora said the government has spent more than US$30 million vaccinating the girls.

The Minister said they were targeting schools but even those who were not in school will not be left out. The difference, between vaccinating once or twice, the Minister said, was negligible.

“It has been seen through research that the difference in coverage is about two percent, it is really negligible,” said Dr Mombeshora.

“So, if you vaccinate once, you will cover a lot.

“But, we were giving two doses, if we were giving one dose, we would have covered four million.

“And this is going to be a continuous process.”

Dr Mombeshora added:

“We need to double our efforts to ending HIV and also to make sure that those who are HIV positive are screened earlier than those who are HIV negative.

“So, decentralising activities will help catch up with all those who are in the rural centres, rural communities and we make sure that we catch them before they are infected.”

Minister of Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Marian Chombo, said:

“It is estimated that every year 2270 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 1451, which is about four women per day, die from the disease.

“Furthermore, HIV prevention, care and treatment programmes are being successfully implemented in the province and in 2023, the province achieved the UN AIDS 95-95-95 targets.

“Such achievements are critical in reducing the burden of cervical cancer.

“HPV vaccination is being conducted in schools combined with routine vaccination but provincial coverage remained low.”

Provincial Medical Director, Dr Celestine Dhege, said the province has been providing some Village AIDS Acton Committee services for quite some time now.

“We have 22 sites that provide the services. We also do an integrated outreach programme where we go to the hard-to-reach areas.

“We have village health workers that provide information that assist our communities in terms of collecting samples,” said Dhege.