Ramping up HPV vax drive
HUMAN papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination will be stepped up this year to address the disruption of immunisation coverage during the Covid-19 pandemic, says Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.

In a written parliamentary reply, Dzulkefly said while the immunisation coverage had exceeded 95% up to 2020, there was a temporary disruption in 2021 because of Covid-19.

“This has directly impacted the HPV immunisation of Form 1 students from the 2021 to the 2024 cohorts,” he said.

“Throughout the last five years, a total of 208,500 (98.3%) Form 1 female students for the 2019 cohort, 209,279 (96.7%) for the 2020 cohort and 113,708 (52.3%) for the 2021 cohort have received the complete HPV immunisation doses,” he said.

However, he said none of the Form 1 students from the 2022 and 2023 cohorts had received their shots as the vaccine was unavailable.

To ensure no Form 1 student is left out of the HPV vaccination drive, those who were left behind will be covered in 2024 so that they will be immunised by the time they complete schooling.

Dzulkefly said the Health Ministry had received 50,000 doses of HPV in January.

This vaccine will be administered to the students from the 2021 cohorts.

The National Cancer Society of Malaysia previously projected that some 500,000 teenage girls could have missed their HPV vaccination from 2020 to 2022.

This was attributed to the closure of schools during the pandemic and the diversion of funds to Covid-19 programmes.

In 2018, the World Health Organisation made a global call for action to eliminate cervical cancer.

To eliminate it, all countries must reach and maintain an incidence rate of below four per 100,000 women.

By 2030, each country must fully vaccinate 90% of girls with the vaccine by the age of 15, screen 70% of women using a high-performance test by the age of 35, and again by the age of 45 and treat 90% of women with pre-cancer and women with invasive cancer.
HUMAN papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination will be stepped up this year to address the disruption of immunisation coverage du­­ring the Covid-19 pandemic, says Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.