Nigeria Fights Cervical Cancer With Hpv Vaccine, Expands Campaign Across The Country

Health workers in Nigeria’s southwestern Oyo state participated in a campaign to spread vaccine information in local villages.

“We’ve heard about cervical cancer before, and we’re aware of the disease it causes, so I asked my daughter to get vaccinated as a precaution,” Ramotalai Awoniran said after her daughter received the vaccine.

The HPV vaccine is now available throughout the country.

According to the United Nations, cervical cancer is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of death among Nigerian women aged 15 to 44.

In 2020, the most recent year for which data is available, the country reported 12,000 new cases and 8,000 deaths from cervical cancer.

Unlike other vaccination campaigns that the West African country has successfully run against all odds, such as the more than 500 languages spoken by its population of at least 210 million people, which may make communication more difficult, or the underfunded primary healthcare centers, which are the most remote government-run health facilities where shots are typically administered, HPV is quite different.

Before the nationwide vaccination drive, Nigerian authorities had been ramping up online and offline campaigns to educate citizens about the HPV vaccine.