Sindh extends HPV vaccination drive to October 1

The human papillomavirus vaccination campaign across Karachi and the rest of Sindh has been extended by three days. During the 12-day drive, 59% of eligible girls were vaccinated, while sessions will continue in schools to cover the remaining 41%. Mobile teams have also been instructed to continue catch-up activities.

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination campaign ran from September 15 to 27, the one-time vaccination drive set a target of 395,609 girls. Of these, 307,421 were vaccinated.

According to a letter issued by the Project Director of Sindh’s Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), Dr Raj Kumar, 59% of targeted girls received the vaccine in the first 12 days. To achieve the set target, the Sindh Health Department has extended the campaign from September 29 (today) until October 1. Special focus will be given to union councils where a higher number of girls remain unvaccinated.

School sessions will continue in areas where coverage is below 80% or where teams have not yet reached. Field teams and supervisors have been directed to participate in catch-up activities without any additional budget. The Education Department will remain engaged to improve school access.

Deputy Commissioners will oversee catch-up activities at the district level. Social leaders, teachers, parents, and religious scholars will be involved in awareness sessions to increase public support and trust in the vaccine. Civil society organisations will help expand community outreach. Health centers and district authorities will also maintain proper records of used vaccine vials.

The vaccine drives results left much to be desired, with rumors and false information hindering the targeted number set by government institutions. The health ministry must be lauded for the efforts made to combat this propaganda. The campaign relied on pediatricians, gynecologists and frontline workers to inform communities about HPV and cervical cancer prevention.

Read: The shot they fear: HPV vaccine & the uphill battle

However, the numbers achieved by the vaccine drive couldn’t match government expectations. The campaign concluded, achieving 77.1% of its target. Despite the drive, almost 89,000 girls could not be vaccinated due to parental refusal, absence from home or school, and illness.

The HPV vaccine campaign has been shrouded in controversy since its inception. Political leaders are spreading false propaganda about it, which has led to many parents preventing thousands of children from receiving the shot.

The false rumours had become so potent that senior members of government, like Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal on publicly vaccinated his daughter to dispel rumours and misinformation surrounding the anti-cervical cancer vaccine, saying that the vaccine is safe and essential for protecting future generations. "To counter this misleading narrative, I have had my own daughter, Raja Kamal, vaccinated in front of the media to show that there is nothing to fear," he added.

It helped, but not by much. Parents slammed their doors on healthcare workers and some schools shut for days over false claims it causes infertility.

The popular leader of a right-wing religious party, Rashid Mehmood Soomro, said the voluntary vaccine was being forced on girls by the government. "In reality, our daughters are being made infertile," he told a rally in Karachi.

Read more: Sindh rolls out HPV vaccine addressing technical, not social gaps

These statements echo a lot of the inaccurate narratives tied to the polio vaccine drive. In the 2010s. such infertility propaganda had riddled the polio vaccine campaign, leading to the National Research and Development Foundation (NRDF) having to release a statement addressing the false information. Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where polio still remains endemic, despite global efforts to eradicate the virus.

The conspiracy theory that Western-produced vaccines are used to curb the Muslim Population first surfaced during the polio campaign, and is now witnessing a revival with the start of the HPV vaccine drive.

"Some people have refused, closed their gates on us, and even hid information about their daughter's age," vaccinator Ambreen Zehra told AFP while going door to door in a lower-middle-income neighbourhood in Karachi.

Pakistan's relationship with vaccines has been tumultuous to say the least. Pakistan is currently the second largest country with the highest number of children with zero doses of vaccines in South Asia, number one being India. A study by British medical journal Lancet found that Pakistan had 419,000 children falling into that zero-vaccine category.