Ahmedabad, March 4: Following the announcement of a national campaign last week, Gujarat has set an ambitious goal to vaccinate 5.5 million adolescent girls against cervical cancer. This initiative, which began in Ahmedabad, is part of a statewide Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination effort.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated this nationwide campaign on February 28 in Rajasthan.
The formal launch of the Gujarat phase took place at the Sola Civil Hospital, where Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel was present alongside Health Minister Prabhul Pansheria.
Health officials stated that the campaign aims to protect girls aged 14 from cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among Indian women, accounting for nearly 17.7% of cases.
According to national statistics, a woman in India is diagnosed with cervical cancer every four minutes and 12 seconds, while one woman dies from the disease every seven minutes.
Approximately 70 to 75% of patients are diagnosed in the second or third stage, making this illness a leading cause of death among women aged 30 to 69.
In 2022, India recorded about 127,526 new cases of cervical cancer and 79,906 deaths. During the same period, Gujarat reported 4,928 new cases and 1,781 deaths.
Experts from the Gujarat Cancer Research Institute (GCRI) have addressed concerns and misinformation surrounding the HPV vaccine, stating that these fears are unfounded.
They emphasized that the vaccine is safe and effective, preventing infections from high-risk HPV types 16 and 18, which are responsible for the majority of cervical cancer cases.
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