New Delhi, March 2: The World Health Organization’s Director-General has commended Prime Minister Narendra Modi for launching a nationwide HPV vaccination campaign aimed at women.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed his appreciation on social media for the initiative by Prime Minister Modi and the Ministry of Health. He highlighted the importance of the campaign in protecting girls from cervical cancer.
In his post on X, Dr. Tedros stated, “I commend Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ministry of Health for initiating a nationwide HPV vaccination campaign to protect girls from cervical cancer.”
He further emphasized the commitment to work with all countries to eliminate cervical cancer, ensuring that girls and women can live free from this preventable disease.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Modi launched the HPV vaccination program for girls aged 14 in Ajmer, Rajasthan. This campaign is positioned as a nationwide movement to eradicate cervical cancer, which is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in India.
The initiative aims to vaccinate approximately 11.5 million girls aged 14 across all states and union territories each year. The vaccine will be administered free of charge at designated government health centers. Vaccination will take place at Ayushman Arogya Mandir (primary health centers), community health centers, sub-district and district hospitals, as well as government medical colleges and hospitals.
Each vaccination session will be supervised by trained medical officers, supported by skilled healthcare teams. All sites will have functional cold chain points (CCPs) linked to government health centers to ensure immediate medical support and management of any rare adverse events following immunization (AEFI).
Informed consent will be obtained from parents or guardians before vaccination.
This special campaign will run in mission mode for three months, during which eligible girls can receive the vaccine daily at designated locations. After this period, the vaccine will continue to be available on regular immunization days.
