Zimpapers Logo

Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Manicaland Bureau
THE Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme has kicked off in Manicaland targeting girls aged between 10 and 14. The vaccination programme will run for a week. HPV is the most common viral infection of the reproductive tract and causes cervical cancer in women.

According to official statistics, an estimated 2 270 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer in Zimbabwe annually with a mortality rate of 64 percent.

In a telephone interview with The Herald yesterday, Manicaland provincial nursing officer, Ms Venus Mahati, said the process was moving smoothly across all districts.
She could not provide the number of girls who had been vaccinated so far.

“The programme has been going on very well and we have not encountered any problems, but we do not yet have the exact number of children who have been vaccinated so far,” she said.

“Nurses in all the seven districts have a schedule that they use to decide how many schools they visit each day and we are yet to collate information from the districts.”

The First Lady Auxilia Mnangagwa officially launched the national HPV vaccination programme roll out in Mutare early this month.

The programme will see more than 800 000 girls vaccinated against cervical cancer by next year.
Thereafter, all grade five girls will be vaccinated annually.

The HPV vaccine pilot project was launched in September 2014 in Beitbridge and Marondera where about 9 000 adolescent girls aged 9-14 from the two selected districts received the new anti-cancer vaccine.

The vaccine is administered twice, with the second dose given after six months and not later than two years since the first vaccination.