By Yamikani Yapuwa
Ministry of Health has said it has managed to vaccinate over 230,000 girls with the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine since the campaign was rolled out in January.
Ministry of Health Spokesperson, Joshua Malango told Malawi News Agency (Mana) on Thursday that currently there is an overwhelming demand for the vaccine among the girls.
“These figures are according to preliminary results, we will have a final report and figure by the end of this month.
“A lot of parents are allowing girls to access vaccines in the country and the demand is overwhelmingly high,” he said.
Malango cited inadequate vaccines to cover all the girls as one of the challenges the HPV vaccine campaign is facing.
Malawi government, in partnership with World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), launched the national HPV vaccine campaign targeting over 240,000 girls aged nine across the country to protect them against cervical cancer.
During the launch, the Ministry’s Principal Secretary Dr Dan Namarika indicated that the vaccine would be given in two doses where the second dose shall be administered six months after the first vaccine
