Gandhinagar/Ahmedabad, March 4 (IANS). Following the national campaign announced last week, Gujarat aims to protect 55 lakh adolescent girls from cervical cancer under the statewide human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination drive launched from Ahmedabad.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated this nationwide campaign in Rajasthan on 28 February.
The Gujarat phase of this campaign was formally launched by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel at Sola Civil Hospital in the presence of Health Minister Praful Pansheria.
Health officials said the campaign aims to protect girls as young as 14 from cervical cancer, which is the second most common cancer among Indian women and accounts for about 17.7 percent of cases.
According to national data, every four minutes and 12 seconds a woman is diagnosed with cervical cancer and every seven minutes a woman dies of the disease in India.
About 70 to 75 percent of patients are diagnosed at stage II or III, and the disease remains a leading cause of death in women aged 30 to 69 years.
In 2022, approximately 1,27,526 new cases and 79,906 deaths related to cervical cancer were recorded in India. Gujarat recorded 4,928 new cases and 1,781 deaths in the same period.
Experts from Gujarat Cancer Research Institute (GCRI) said that the concerns and misinformation spread about the HPV vaccine are baseless.
They said the vaccine is safe and effective and is effective in preventing infection with high-risk HPV types 16 and 18, which are responsible for the majority of cervical cancer cases.
–IANS
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