Expert: 6% of eligible girls have received HPV vaccine in Armenia

PanARMENIAN.Net - Only 6% of the relevant age group have showed up to receive HPV vaccine in Armenia, according to Professor Heidi Larson, director of The Vaccine Confidence Project and professor of anthropology, risk and decision science at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

In England in 2018/19, around 84% of eligible girls received both doses of the HPV vaccine, but some other countries have much lower rates. The vaccine has had a 'bumpy' ride since its introduction a decade ago, says Professor Larson.

In lower-income countries, access depends partly on funding. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (a public-private partnership that promotes access to vaccines in developing countries), provides some access, but funding is not always the issue.

"Armenia, which has pretty strong vaccine confidence in general and high uptake of childhood vaccines, got Gavi funding to roll out HPV vaccine targeting 90% of relevant age group and only managed to get 6% to show up for it,” the expert said in a new article by Medscape.

“So there are cases like that, and on the other hand places like Rwanda and Zimbabwe that are doing OK.”

In January, Professor Peter Johnson, NHS England's national clinical director for cancer, said : "we hope that cervical cancer can be eliminated altogether by the NHS in England".

Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide have cervical cancer, which currently has a high mortality rate. However, specialists and the World Health Organization (WHO) argue that within the next 100 years, humanity may be able to eradicate this form of cancer altogether.