The Health Ministry maintained on Saturday that it is yet to take a decision on starting a vaccination campaign against the human papillomavirus (HPV), despite reports that it is set to offer the vaccine from the second quarter of this year. The National Technical Advisory Group for Immunisation (NTAGI) has recommended the HPV vaccination for adolescent girls between the ages of nine and 14 years.
The Ministry had earlier said that in June 2022, after evaluating the fresh evidence on the cervical cancer burden and the effectiveness of a single dose of HPV vaccine, including clinical trial data and Sikkim’s experience with the vaccine, NTAGI recommended the vaccine’s inclusion in the government’s universal immunisation programme. This would involve a one-time catch-up shot for nine to 14-year-old adolescent girls, followed by a routine introduction at nine years.
The World Health Organisation’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) has maintained that the HPV vaccine is highly effective for the prevention of HPV serotypes 16 and 18, which cause 70% of cervical cancer.
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‘Fishy’ vaccine trials
In India, the vaccine faced a major backlash over a decade ago, and the government got a rap on the knuckles from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare in its 2013 report, titled “Alleged Irregularities in the Conduct of Studies using Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccine by PATH in India’’. The Committee took note of the reported deaths of some female children and adolescents in Andhra Pradesh’s Khammam district following HPV vaccine trials trials carried out by an American agency, the Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), in collaboration with the government.
The Committee had found the entire matter “very intriguing and fishy”. It observed that the choice of countries, and population groups, with unlimited market potential and opportunities in universal immunisation progammes, were all pointers to a well-planned scheme to commercially exploit the situation. It added that if PATH had then been successful in getting the HPV vaccine included in the universal immunisation programme of the concerned countries, including India, this would have generated windfall profits for the vaccine’s manufacturers by way of automatic sales, year after year, without any promotional or marketing expenses. The project was reportedly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, an American charity.
Preventable and curable
Globally, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women. In India, cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women, and India contributes to the largest proportion of the global cervical cancer burden, according to the Union government’s data.
Cervical cancer is a preventable and curable disease if it is detected early and managed effectively. Most cervical cancers are associated with HPV, and thus, the HPV vaccine can prevent most cases of cervical cancer if the vaccine is administered before girls or women are exposed to the virus. Prevention through vaccination is one of the pillars of WHO’s global strategy to eliminate cervical cancer.
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The vaccination will be provided at a health facility, while for out-of-school girls, the campaign will be conducted through community outreach and mobile teams, the Health Ministry had said while alerting State governments to its efforts to initiate the campaign.
Effective shield
“HPV vaccination works well and has the potential to prevent more than 90% of HPV attributable cancers,” said Sanjeev Kumar, a surgical oncologist at Delhi’s Manipal Hospital. “Since HPV vaccination was first recommended in 2006, around 125 countries have introduced HPV vaccines, offering access to one in three girls aged 9-14 worldwide. Trials conducted in India and abroad have results that show an 81% reduced risk of HPV-associated cancer in vaccinated women.” The HPV vaccine protects against any infection by the human papillomavirus, which can cause genital warts and certain types of cancer, including cervical, anal, oropharyngeal, penile, vulvar, and vaginal, he added.
Also read: Understanding the HPV vaccine’s risk
“The vaccine not only targets cervical cancer but also provides a shield against related malignancies and genital warts,” said Shweta Wazir, a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology at Gurugram’s Motherhood Hospital. She added that the inclusion of boys in the vaccination drive could contribute to reducing the overall prevalence of HPV-related diseases.
