Despite vaccination hesitancy, the end may be in sight for cervical cancer, which kills 64% of women with the disease
T
he questions come fast and furious: “Why only girls?”, “will it affect her periods?”, “can it cause infertility?”, “is it halal?” Inside the airy sports hall of Khatoon-e-Pakistan government girls’ school, the pupils in their crisp blue and white uniforms whisper among themselves, as their parents listen attentively to the health officials taking the session.
While there are some fathers in the chairs laid out for the occasion, the majority are mothers. The groundwork is under way ahead of Pakistan’s first nationwide rollout of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination campaign.
The numbers are ambitious: more than 13 million girls aged nine to 14 are due to receive the vaccine in an initiative aimed at protecting them from cervical cancer, a disease with often few symptoms that kills more than 3,000 women in Pakistan each year.
