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Ministry of Health has announced that it has embarked on a multi-age cohort cervical cancer vaccination campaign targeting about 2.5 million girls aged between nine and 18. The ministry’s routine immunisation officer Tuweni Chumachapera told the media in Lilongwe on Saturday that the campaign is aimed at saving lives from cervical cancer. She said the campaign will run from October 27 to November 1 2025 nationwide. Previously, Malawi has been vaccinating girls aged between nine and 14 with the human papiloma virus (HPV) vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. Chumachapera has since urged parents and guardians to ensure that the girls in the targeted age bracket get vaccinated, saying this is the only chance the country has to protect them from cervical cancer. She said based on statistics, Malawi is second globally in terms of incidence and lives are being lost. Said Chumachapera: “We came up with the initiative to protect our women. The cervical cancer vaccine, which we call HPV vaccine, was introduced in 2019 in Malawi and earlier, it was being given to girls aged between nine and 14 years. “We saw that from 2019 up to now many girls missed the vaccine, and that is why the campaign this year is targeting girls who are 9 to 18 years.” To ensure that all the targeted girls are covered, the vaccination will be carried in schools, markets, shopping centres, bus depots, refugee camps, outreach points and other places where girls can access it. The resources for the vaccination exercise have been provided by GAVI The Vaccine Alliance through the World Health Organisation (WHO). In her remarks, WHO HPV consultant Dafrosa Lyimo said Malawi is not doing well in terms of vaccination coverage, as it currently stands at 22 percent of the targeted group. She said if nothing is done to protect women from cancer, the country will see cases rising to 22 545 by 2030 while deaths will hit 15 705 by 2030. Amref Health Africa, Malawi technical adviser for vaccine preventable diseases Chris Chinkhota said the country needs to utilise the vaccination opportunity to protect girls and women from cervical cancer. The Malawi cervical cancer elimination strategy targets to have 90 percent of girls vaccinated by age of 15, 70 percent of women screened with a high-quality test by ages 35 and 45, and also have 90 percent of women with cervical disease receiving treatment by 2030.
