The Federal Government has said the second phase of the Human Papillomavirus vaccination would commence on May 27, 2024.
Director of Disease Control and Immunisation at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Rufai Garba, disclosed this in Abuja at a one-day sensitisation programme of the National Association of Women Journalists and Women Religious Groups on the vaccine.
It could be recalled that the federal government on October 24, 2023 introduced the first phase of the HPV vaccine into the routine immunisation system, targeting over seven million aged 9 to 14 girls, which is the largest number in a single round of HPV vaccination in the African region.
Garba said the first phase encompassed sixteen states, including Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Enugu, Jigawa, Kano, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ogun, Osun, Taraba, and the Federal Capital Territory.
While the second phase will encompass the remaining states – Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Ondo, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Yobe, and Zamfara.
The director noted that despite the challenges, the country has begun the distribution of the vaccine to states, noting that the exercise will commence on May 27.
He added that every 9 to 14-year-old girl deserves protection, as the vaccine shields them from common strains of HPV that could lead to cervical cancer.
HPV is a common sexually transmitted infection that has a silent harbinger of several types of cancers, including cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women aged 15 to 49 years. Nigeria contributes an estimated 12,075 new cases of global cervical cancer annually.
HPV infection has been identified as a high-risk factor, implicated in 95 per cent of cervical cancer cases. With 12,000 new diagnoses and 8,000 lives claimed each year, it translates to 33 new cervical cancer cases and 22 deaths every day in the country.