Victory for Vaccines: goal to eliminate 95% of cervical cancer

Do you think the Cervical Cancer vaccine will be successful to eliminate cervical cancer?

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• No
• Not sure

The latest research in the field of carcinogens is the vaccine for cervical cancer. Cervical Cancer contributes to about 6-24% of the cancers in women. Cervical cancer is mostly associated with a virus, commonly known as human papillomavirus (HPV). More than 95% of cervical cancer is caused by sexually transmitted HPV, which is the fourth most common type of cancer in women globally with 90% of these women living in low and middle income countries.

Gardasil 9 is the magic word that is eliminating these strains of cervical cancer from the face of the earth. This vaccine is a mixture of L1 proteins of HPV serotypes 16, 18, 6 and 11 with aluminum-containing adjuvant. Besides cervical cancer, this vaccine shows 100% efficacy in the treatment of vulvar, oropharyngeal and other head and neck cancers caused by HPV types. Initially, the dosage of this vaccine came in two parts. It was first given to children ages 9-14, followed by the second dose after a period of 6-12 months.

https://www.eehealth.org/blog/2017/06/hpv-vaccine/

The most recent development, or a game changer, came after the April 2022 convening of the “the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE)” where it was evidentially claimed that a single vaccine works as efficaciously as the two-dose vaccine system. Since this vaccine is administered only once, the results are faster and more promising. WHO Assistant Director-General Dr Princess Nothemba (Nono) Simelela stated, “This single-dose recommendation has the potential to take us faster to our goal of having 90 per cent of girls vaccinated by the age of 15 by 2030.” In January 2023, the Indian government also approved the vaccine: “cervavac” developed by the Serum Institute of India. This vaccine is also administered in single doses. It is needless to say that the single dose schedule is not only easier to administer but also less expensive. This means there is a realistic prospect of all countries taking part in this attempt to eliminate 95% of cervical cancer in this way

Citations:

World Health Organization. (n.d.). One-dose human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine offers solid protection against cervical cancer. World Health Organization. Retrieved April 29, 2023, from https://www.who.int/news/item/11-04-2022-one-dose-human-papillomavirus-(hpv)-vaccine-offers-solid-protection-against-cervical-cancer

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5234166/#:~:text=In%20India%2C%20cervical%20cancer%20contributes,4.91%2F100%2C000%20in%20Dibrugarh%20district.