NEW DELHI: India plans to roll out the HPV vaccine in the national immunization programme for school girls to protect them from cervical cancer “in a few months” time, top health ministry officials said Tuesday.
“The HPV vaccine will be rolled out in a few months but we will have to wait for the TB vaccine,” said Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava at a press conference held by Union Health Minister J P Nadda.
Without giving any more details, she said, the ministry is strategizing the way forward.
Cervical cancer, which is the second most common cancer in India, is a preventable and curable disease if detected early and treated adequately.
Cervical cancer is a significant public health challenge in India, accounting for 77,348 cervical cancer deaths in women, annually.
Although the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) had already recommended the inclusion of HPV vaccination into the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP), the government has delayed its decision to implement it.
India’s Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) in 2023 granted market authorisation to the Serum Institute of India (SII) to manufacture indigenously-developed India’s first Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus vaccine (qHPV) against cervical cancer. The vaccine is available in the private sector.