Centre to launch nationwide cervical cancer vaccination campaign for teenage girls this week

New Delhi: After years of trials, the Union government is set to launch a special nationwide HPV vaccination campaign this week to protect young girls from cervical cancer, which is the second most common cancer among Indian women. A single dose of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine would be administered to 14 year old girls, sources said here on Tuesday, noting that 1.15 crore girls would be vaccinated every year.

This will be a special campaign as the vaccine will not be part of the universal immunisation programme.

The girls’ age will be decided on the basis of any government identity proof such as birth certificate, Aadhar or ration card. The vaccine to be administered will be Merck’s Gardasil.

India’s cervical cancer burden is one of the world’s highest with nearly 80,000 new cases and 42,000 cervical cancer deaths reported each year as late detection and low screening drive up the numbers.

Sources said HPV vaccines were among the most extensively studied vaccines worldwide, with evidence demonstrating 93–100% effectiveness in preventing cervical cancer.

A quadrivalent vaccine, Gardasil protects against HPV types 16 and 18, which cause over 80% cervical cancer cases in India, as well as types 6 and 11.

The vaccine does not cause HPV infection, and has an excellent safety record, supported by more than 500 million doses administered globally since its introduction in 2006.

Global and Indian scientific evidence confirms that a single dose provides robust and durable protection when administered to girls in the recommended age group.

The launching of the HPV vaccine campaign will happen two years after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her 2024 interim budget speech that the government would encourage HPV vaccination for girls of 9-14 years of age.

Since 2006, HPV shots have been licensed for cervical cancer prevention, initially as a three-dose regimen, and later as a two-dose regimen for girls younger than 15 years.

But later based on scientific evidence showing that one dose of HPV vaccine is as effective in preventing HPV infection and cervical precancerous lesions as a multi-dose regimen, the World Health Organisation in 2022 endorsed a single-dose HPV vaccination schedule in females aged 9–20 years.

The Indian Council of Medical Research too has conducted trials on the efficacy of the single dose HPV vaccine.

Earlier the International Agency for Research on Cancer have shown how shifting to a single-dose strategy would save India approximately $435 million over a 10-year period. Globally, over 90 countries are implementing single-dose HPV vaccination schedules, improving coverage and affordability.

Several countries have already demonstrated substantial reductions in HPV infection, precancerous lesions, and cervical cancer incidence following widespread vaccination.