Fighting cancer – Along with vaccination, screening must be done to detect early signs of HPV

Source: The post is based on an article “Fighting cancer – Along with vaccination, screening must be done to detect early signs of HPV” published in The Hindu on 24th December 2022. 

Syllabus: GS 2 – Social Justice

Relevance: Measures taken by India to prevent cervical cancer.

News: The Indian government has decided to roll out vaccination for girls aged between 9 and 14 years through schools to fight cervical cancer. A study in the Lancet also suggests the rising of cervical cancer among women. 

What is cervical cancer? 

It is caused by infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV) and there are vaccines which protect against carcinogenic HPV. It is a preventable and treatable cancer.  

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What are the key findings of the Lancet report? 

India accounts for the highest number of cervical cancer cases in Asia followed by China. More than 58% of all cases of cervical cancer and deaths globally were estimated in Asia. India accounted for 21% of cases and 23% of deaths followed by China. 

Due to these concerns, WHO has come up with several guidelines. It has specified that countries must reach and maintain an incidence rate of fewer than 4 new cases of cervical cancer per 1,00,000 women a year.  

Therefore, it is necessary that 90% of girls be fully vaccinated with the HPV vaccine by the age of 15 to achieve this goal. 

What steps are being taken by India to prevent cervical cancer? 

The government has decided to introduce the HPV vaccine in the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP).  

UIP is one of the largest public health programmes targeting over 2 crore newborns and 2 crore pregnant women annually and offers free vaccines for at least 12 diseases. 

India is also expected to roll out the indigenously developed Cervavac vaccine by mid-2023. The vaccination will be provided primarily through schools.  

The government will reach those girls who do not go to school through community outreach and mobile teams. 

This is an important step because studies show that there is a link between cervical cancer incidence and human development index values. The incidence of cervical cancer decreases as HDI improves. 

Further, there is also a need for screening programmes to be conducted to detect early signs of the disease to allow time for treatment. 

India has to eliminate cervical cancer like it has eliminated diseases such as polio, maternal and neonatal tetanus, etc.