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From Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for the collaboration of community and religious leaders across the country to join hands in stemming the tide of human papillomavirus (HPV) in their various communities.
Also, UNICEF has advocated for aggressive advocacy for the vaccination of the girl child against HPV in order to eradicate the rate of cervical cancer and reduce the risk of the deadly disease.
Speaking during a two-day media dialogue workshop tagged “Combating the most preventable form of deadly cancer affecting women and girls, a Health Specialist with UNICEF, Dr Ijeoma Agbo, maintained that the vaccination remains crucial to public health intervention.
She maintained that the vaccination is the most effective and safe means to protect girls from developing cervical cancer later in life, saying with girls aged 9 to 14, targeted for the vaccine, an estimated 604,000 new cases with 342,000 deaths occurred globally in 2020, while 12,075 cases and 7968 deaths were recorded in Nigeria.
According to her, the vaccine protects against HPV types 16 and 18 and provides cross-protection for types 31, 33, and 35, including the serotypes causing anogenital warts.
