The Ondo state primary healthcare development agency has stressed the importance of the Human papilloma virus vaccine while calling on mothers in the state to ensure their girl child are vaccinated when the exercise begins.
The plea became necessary as the state is set to roll out vaccinations against HPV in May this year.
The permanent Secretary of the agency, Dr Francis Akanbiemu made the plea while addressing some groups of women in Akure as part of advocacy campaign ahead of the vaccination.
The campaign is for two purposes of mobilizing mothers to make their girls between age 9 and 14 available for the vaccination when it begins in May and to clear all myths and misconceptions around the vaccines.
At one of such campaigns held in Akure, Dr Akanbiemu said the HPV vaccine had been found to prevent the deadly cervical cancer in over ninety percent of women who were vaccinated hence the need for mothers to ensure that their girls aged 9 to 14yrs benefitted from the exercise.
Dr Akanbiemu who stressed that the vaccine was for all women explained that girls of age 9 to 14 were being targeted for the first batch of the vaccination.
He however maintained that eligible girls must not engage in sexual activities before taking the vaccine for effective result.
While lamenting that Nigeria lost 8,000 women to cervical cancer in 2023, the ODSPHCDA Permanent Secretary said any girl that is vaccinated has conquered human papilloma virus, the virus that causes cervical cancer and other diseases affecting women’s reproductive health.
Nigeria currently has over 12,000 cases of cervical cancer and last year alone, the country lost 8,000 women to this terrible disease. Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women all over the world while it is Second most common in Nigeria, first is breast cancer.
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