After having accused the Niti Ayog of pursuing anti-poor policies and trained guns on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Swadeshi Jagran Manch, the economic wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh now has the cervical cancer vaccine in its crosshairs. It has written to prime minister Narendra Modi that the human papilloma virus vaccine (HPV) should not become a part of the routine immunisation programme as there are safety issues and also such a move would entail a huge financial commitment.
“It is our concern that this programme will divert scarce resources from more worthwhile health initiatives diverting it to this vaccine of doubtful utility and that its adverse effects will erode confidence in the national immunization programme and thereby expose children unnecessarily to the risk of more serious vaccine-preventable disease. Swadeshi Jagran Manch requests you to stop this move to introduce Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine in India and we recommend the strongest action against groups that pervert science, which brings ignominy to the scientific community in the country and sells the country to vested interests,” SJM has written in the letter.
HPV is associated with more than 80 per cent cervical cancers — not all HPV infections go on to become cancerous. As one oncologist puts it, HPV is a necessary but not sufficient condition for cervical cancer. Data from the national cancer registry shows that in 2013,92,731 cases of cervical cancer were reported in India, a figure that is projected to go up to 1,00,479 in 2020.
The vaccine is recommended for girls at the age of 11-12 years though it can be administered to both boys and girls of that age. The US National Cancer Institute recommends “vaccination of females aged 13 through 26 years and of males aged 13 through 21 years who have not been vaccinated previously or who have not completed the three-dose vaccination series. Males aged 22 through 26 years may be vaccinated”.
The SJM letter comes days before the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) is slated to take up a recommendation of one of its subgroups that HPV should be a part of the universal immunisation programme. NTAGI was scheduled to meet on December 6 but the meeting had to be postponed because it clashed with a meeting in the PMO. However whenever the next meeting happens NTAGI, which is the highest decision making body on vaccines would take up HPV, say sources in the Union health ministry.
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