HPV vaccine to be rolled out in immunisation programme in a few months

New Delhi: India will introduce HPV vaccine in the public immunisation programme for teen age girls to protect them from cervical cancer “in a few months”, a top official said here on Tuesday.

“The HPV vaccine will be rolled out in a few months but we will have to wait for the TB vaccine,” Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said at a press conference in the presence of Union Health Minister J P Nadda.

The announcement comes a year after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in his 2024 interim budget said, “The government will encourage vaccination for girls in the age group of 9-14 years for the prevention of cervical cancer.”

The officials didn’t disclose the rollout details, but said the ministry was strategising the way forward before the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination campaign starts.

It would be launched in a pilot mode initially in a few states as previous trials with HPV vaccines were being considered as “studies” and not a full-fledged pilot programme, a senior official told DH.

For more than a decade, the ministry has been toying with the idea of introducing the HPV vaccine for girls in the public-funded immunisation programme because of a steady rise in cervical cancer cases.

While earlier there were a couple of foreign vaccines, an indigenous HPV vaccine is currently available.

Last year, the World Health Organisation in a report stated that India would make a 16-times economic gain by introducing the HPV vaccine to adolescent girls even though the investment needed would be high.

According to the report, it will be a girls-only vaccination for nine years old with a catch-up for girls aged 10-14, and twice-lifetime cervical cancer screening at ages 35 and 45.

Asked about the impact of Donald Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the WHO, Nadda said while the Indian health programmes would continue with government’s own funds, the Ministry of External Affairs was looking into the issue.

On the long awaited TB vaccines, Rajiv Bahl, Secretary, Department of Health Research said trial results of one vaccine was not good for deployment, whereas it would take another one year for the second vaccine to complete the trials.

Moreover, two other anti-TB vaccines are under different stages of testing and consideration.

Asked whether India would be able to eliminate TB by 2025 – a target announced by the Prime Minister – Nadda said a clearer picture would emerge in the first week of April once the special 100 day campaign in 347 districts is over by March 24. So far 1.26 lakh new TB patients have been identified under this campaign.