Uganda launches HPV vaccination programme to fight its commonest cancer

Experts on cervical cancer have welcomed the launch of a vaccination programme in Uganda but have called for investment in screening to run in parallel.

The incidence of cervical cancer in Uganda is three times the global average, and the cancer is the most frequently diagnosed in women.

The vaccine programme, a collaboration between the Ugandan ministry of health and the drug company Merck Sharpe & Dohme (MSD, known as Merck & Co in north America), will see 140 000 girls aged 9-12 years given injections of the quadrivalent vaccine Gardasil, which protects girls against the human papillomavirus (HPV), known to cause cervical cancer. Gardasil protects against types 6, 11, 16, and 18 of HPV, of which the last two types are known to cause 70% …