Why indigenous HPV vaccine has the potential to drastically bring down the incidence & deaths caused by cervical cancer in India?

Source: The post is based on the article “Why indigenous HPV vaccine has the potential to drastically bring down the incidence & deaths caused by cervical cancer in India?” published in Indian Express on 15th July 2022

What is the News?

The Serum Institute of India(SII)’s Vaccine “Cervavac” has received the Drugs Controller General of India’s(DGCI) approval for market authorisation.

What is Cervavac?

Click Here to read about it

Why does one need to prevent HPV to reduce Cervical Cancer?

Cervical cancer continues to be one of the only vaccine-preventable cancers. 

Almost all cervical cancers are found in women who have a history of HPV infection.

So, the best way to prevent cervical cancer is to prevent an HPV Infection in the first place. And, that is what the HPV vaccines like Cervavac do.

Who should be given Cervavac vaccines?

Since the virus is sexually transmitted, it has to be given to teenage girls before they are sexually active. Once an infection happens, the vaccine cannot clear it out. Hence, the effectiveness of the vaccine keeps dropping with age.

For those who are past the age of HPV vaccination, regular screening is the best way to keep an eye out for whether they have cervical cancer.

What will be the impact of this development?

The impact will be tremendous if we are able to vaccinate 90% of teenage girls. It will drastically bring down the incidence and deaths caused by cervical cancer in India.

India sees about 1.2 lakh cervical cancer cases a year and around 67,000 deaths a year.

Are there other vaccines against HPV available?

At present, there are two HPV vaccines available – GSKs Cervarix and Merck’s Gardasil.  Cervarix is not readily available in India and the other one is costlier.