Conversation about the vaccine becoming a part of the Universal Immunisation Programme has been on since 2017
Marking a major milestone in the battle against cervical cancer, the government of India has announced that it is all set to roll out a national programme for vaccination of young girls against the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is the commonest cause of cervical cancer.
Union health secretary Punya Salila Srivastava told journalists during an interaction on the progress of the National Health Mission that the vaccine could soon become a part of the Universal Immunisation Programme. The vaccine is meant to be administered to girls in the 9-14 years age group. January incidentally is observed as cervical cancer awareness month.
India has a massive burden of cervical cancer with about 77,000 women losing their lives to the disease every year. It is the second most common cancer in Indian women. In the past concerns about vaccine price had been one of the deterrents in a national rollout of the vaccine but there is now an indigenous option manufactured by the Serum Institute of India that comes at half the cost of those manufactured by foreign companies.
As early as in 2017the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation had been in favour of a UIP inclusion but the proposal fell foul of right wing organisations who wrote to the prime minister opposing it. In the Union Budget last year, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that India would encourage HPV vaccinations of young girls. However the decision to roll it out had so far been left to the states with only some such as Delhi, Punjab and Sikkim going ahead with it.
Studies over the years have suggested that India has a realistic shot at eliminating cervical cancer in the next few decades if it were to start vaccinating young girls without any delay. One such article in The Lancet Oncology in 2019 had set that deadline at as early as 2079. While better hygiene standards in women have brought down the incidence of cervical cancer, the burden is still very high largely because screening efforts have been sporadic and women get detected with the disease at a fairly late stage.
