Amid rising inquiries the state health dept has remained silent on HPV vaccine policy
Doctors have advocated for inclusion of the HPV vaccine in the National Immunisation Schedule. Representation pic
Months after the push for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in the interim budget by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, doctors note that inquiries continue to rush in. However, state health officials said there is no clarity on whether guidelines will be issued in the near future.
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“The Pune and Aurangabad Municipal Corporations had requested us for approval to start an HPV vaccine for adolescent girls. We will be providing them with an NOC soon,” a state health official said, adding there were no such requests from Mumbai. Dr Nitin Ambadekar, additional director of health services in Mumbai, noted that the two civic bodies had taken it up on their own accord.
“They will be procuring it from their budget. As such, the state health department has not received any guidelines or communication from the Centre so far,” he said.
There was no mention of this in the recent Union Budget. Former health official with PMC, Dr Bhagwan Pawar, said, “An NGO we were working with in PMC schools had recommended it. They were supposed to purchase some doses, and so were we. We were also planning on holding a study on the impact of it once the approval arrived.”
The HPV vaccine protects against genital warts and most cases of cervical cancer caused by the HPV virus, which is transmitted through sexual intercourse. In the city, doctors noted at least a couple of people inquire about the HPV vaccine every day. “The vaccines have been available for a very long time, but it has been a very common inquiry at OPDs this year. The best prevention is if the vaccines are made part of the immunisation schedule,” said Dr Nikhil Datar, a city-based gynaecologist.
According to ICMR-NCRP, the estimated number of cervical cancer cases in the country in 2023 was more than 3.4 lakh.
At the moment, both domestic and foreign-made HPV vaccines can cost between Rs 2,000 to Rs 4,000 per dose and are only available at private facilities.
Another gynaecologist, Dr Dhrupti Dedhiya, said, “The demand has surged, but it does not make sense to keep it limited to adolescent girls.”
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