Namibia to start rolling out HPV vaccine in April

A senior Namibia health official told VOA that the southern African country will begin distributing the HPV vaccine to teenage girls in April as a preventive measure against cervical cancer.

There are approximately 1 million women in Namibia aged 15 years and above who are at risk of cervical cancer.

Approximately 375 women in Namibia are diagnosed with the disease each year, with a case fatality rate of over 50%.

The human papillomavirus vaccine, or HPV, has been shown to significantly reduce the chance of developing cervical cancer.

Health workers will start vaccinating about 183,000 girls aged 9 to 14 next month, said Ben Nangombe, executive director of Namibia’s Ministry of Health and Social Services.

He said the Ministry of Health has allocated $7 million for the procurement of single-dose vaccines.

Mehafo Amunyela, who works on the #Be Free Youth project in the capital Katutura town, told VOA that vaccine hesitancy could be a barrier to fully immunizing target groups. She said she hopes the campaign will educate children and their families about the benefits of vaccinations.

“We saw the public reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine when it came out, but I think we need to be honest with ourselves and remember that the reason we don’t have diseases like polio is because of the vaccines, they worked then and they still do now ,”she says.

The Namibia Cancer Society said the vast distances between most towns and villages in Namibia could create another logistical challenge for the immunization program.

The association said that in order to achieve the goal of vaccinating 183,000 girls, information campaigns should be launched in the different indigenous languages ​​spoken in the country.

With the rollout of the HPV vaccine, Namibia is doing its part to achieve the World Health Organization’s goal of vaccinating 90% of girls globally by 2030, with the long-term goal of eliminating cervical cancer over the next century.

Although cervical cancer is preventable and curable, according to the World Health Organization, the disease will claim 350,000 lives worldwide by 2022.