More than 33,000 girls aged nine to 13 have been vaccinated against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) to protect them from cervical cancer in the country. The beneficiaries were from 17 districts in the Northern, Central and Greater Accra regions as part of the HPV demonstration vaccination pilot programme, which was launched in November, 2013. The First Lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama, announced this at the eighth Stop Cervical, Breast and Prostate Cancer in Africa Conference, Windhoek, Namibia. She said three rounds of the vaccination processes, covering the 33,000 girls, were successfully completed with support from Global Alliance for Vaccines Immunisation (GAVI) and United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF). The conference was on the theme “Moving forward to end cervical cancer by 2030’’. She explained that the pilot vaccination programme was to document lessons for a future upscale into a nationwide programme. According to her, Ghana was also negotiating with GAVI to extend its vaccination support period from five years to 10 to consolidate progress in combating non-communicable and communicable diseases.

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