‘Over 321,000 Ondo teenage girls vaccinated against HPV’

With staggering 94% coverage, we’ll sustain tempo, says govt

Ondo State Government has described as impressive the coverage recorded in the vaccination of teenage girls against Human Pappiloma Virus (HPV) in the state.
The state government, while vowing to sustain the tempo recorded in the vaccination against the deadly cervical cancer, which had been incorporated into the state’s routine immunisation, disclosed that no fewer than 321,008 girls had been fortified against the deadly cervical cancer with HPV vaccine.

The state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Banji Ajaka, who stated this in Akure, the state capital, during the debriefing of the Technical Working Group on Human Pappiloma Virus Vaccine Introduction (HPVVI) in the state, stressed that the virus was the second-highest killer of women after breast cancer in the country.

According to the commissioner, the coverage is overwhelming, stressing that the government was making efforts to sustain the feat through the regularisation of the HPV vaccine in the state’s immunisation programme.

However, Permanent Secretary, Ondo State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Francis Akanbiemu, has appealed to mothers whose girls were yet to get vaccinated to take advantage of the fact that it would only be available for girls aged nine years old from January 2025.

Akanbiemu said that the vaccine was being administered to girls at no cost in government hospitals.

He lauded all development partners, religious leaders, women groups, health workers, and mothers in the state for their cooperation during the exercise. One of the development partners, represented by the Senior Programme Manager, Kosi Izundu, said the NGO was impressed with the achievement recorded by the Ondo State government in the HPV vaccination coverage, hence the support.