Medicines Sans Frontieres (MSF) Malawi and Chikwawa District Council have expressed satisfaction with the response to the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination to protect girls aged between nine and 14 years from cervical cancer.

The three-day HPV vaccination campaign which started on Monday, targeted to immunise about 42 068 girls from 230 primary and secondary schools in Chikwawa District.  But as of Thursday, about 33 862 girls had received the vaccination, representing about 80.5 percent of the targeted population.

In an interview on Thursday, Chikwawa District Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) coordinator Ebenezer Banda attributed the positive response to the massive HPV awareness campaigns.

He said: “Following other vaccination campaigns such as typhoid, among others, it wasn’t that difficult to sensitise communities on the HPV vaccine.

“Currently, we are conducting mop-up campaign to reach out to girls who missed the vaccination and we are hopeful that by Friday, we will reach our target.”

A healthcare worker vaccinates a girl during the door-to-door campaign

In a separate interview, MSF external activities manager for the cervical cancer project, Camille Desforges, expressed satisfaction with the positive response. 

He said following the successful campaign in Chikwawa, his organisation is planning to conduct similar vaccination campaigns in other districts.

“So we want to try another model which is like more community based model like door to door or mobile clinics. But we don’t know where and when, depending on our budget,” said Desforges.

Data from MSF Malawi shows that about 2 900 women and girls die of cervical cancer every year in the country, translating to about eight deaths daily.

In its presentation to journalists in Blantyre last week, MSF said about 4 000 women and girls are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year, representing about 11 new cases per day.

MSF France-Malawi head of mission Marion Pechayre observed that most of the cervical cancer deaths occur in Malawi due to late detection of the HPV, which causes the disease.

Last year, Ministry of Health targeted to screen 617 775 women aged between 25 and 49. However, only 222 076 were screened due to unavailability of services in some health centres.

The post Cervical cancer campaign impresses MSF, council first appeared on The Nation Online.