HPV vaccination |
EVERY public health breakthrough carries two promises: that science can prevent disease and that people will trust it enough to embrace it. Scientific progress alone cannot fulfil the second promise.
Pakistan’s introduction of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine into its national immunisation programme is a historic milestone in the fight against cervical cancer. The vaccine offers girls protection from a largely preventable disease. But introduction is only the beginning. Long-term success will depend not only on vaccine delivery but on whether families have confidence in it.
Cervical cancer is one of the few cancers that can largely be prevented. Persistent infection with high-risk HPV causes almost all cases, and decades of evidence show that vaccination substantially reduces HPV infection and precancerous lesions and can prevent cervical cancer. Pakistan now has the opportunity to achieve these gains.
Science answers one question: does the vaccine work? Communities ask another: can I trust it?
Pakistan has the vaccine. Now it must build trust.
Our GLOBE-HPV research among women in urban informal settlements and rural communities across Pakistan offers an important insight.........