The National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, has described as mere fallacy and unfounded, information making the rounds in the social media claiming that HPV Vaccine causes infertility or harmful to health, saying, no serious adverse effects had been recorded among those vaccinated so far.
Dr. Muyi Aina who was represented by Dr. Garba Rufai, the Acting Director of Disease Control and Immunisation at the NPHCDA, said, there is vaccine safety monitoring not just by the NPHCDA but by the country and the AEFI reporting system of monitoring that goes from ward to the local government level is also in place.
” Side effect, in the immunization space, is called adverse events following immunization (AEFI) is described as some fever or slight swelling, among others “. he explained ” We have been able to start the immunization in 12 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), but we still have three states as part of the plan we are yet to commence in. In those states, we are almost running out of vaccines “. Aina
Aina noted that the Federal Government has vaccinated over 3.9 million girls aged nine to 14 years, “In these 12 states we have vaccinated almost four million women. Specifically, we have vaccinated about 3.9 million. I am sure, we might be crossing the four million mark by the time we are done here and Kano starts, it will be close to five million.”
He described the vaccination exercise as a process involving a lot of planned activities lined up to actualize that and capacity building is ongoing.
On her part, Prof. Rose Anorlu, a consultant obstetrics & gynecologist at the College of Medicine at the University of Lagos, says it takes about 15 to 20 years for HPV infection to develop into cancer.
Anorlu who is also the Head of Oncology and Pathological Studies, at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), in her presentation titled “Cervical Cancer: The Right Communication for Prevention,’ said, “So we will be seeing cases of reduction in the incidence of cervical cancer, in the next 10 years.”
According to her, some countries like Australia and others have started to report a reduction in the incidences of cervical cancer in their countries. “We must equip ourselves by consistently doing research to tackle Cervical cancer “, she said
Earlier, the National President of the Network of Reproductive Health Journalists of Nigeria, NRHJN, Mrs. Yinka Shokunbi, noted that there have been stories on social media and a whole lot more short recordings, even by Nigerians, warning mothers not to allow their young daughters to take the HPV vaccine and answers needed to be given, hence the reason for the meeting.
” People are asking questions, should we just dismiss their concerns and move on despite all these? The silence is too loud to be ignored. Answers are needed “. Shokunbi
She said and I quote, ” If the World Health Organization (WHO), which is the global umbrella body for health, says these vaccines—Cevarix and Gadarsil—are safe, why are we skeptical?
” We know that there are some legal issues on the HPV vaccination, and even court cases instituted in some of the western countries, how relevant are these cases to our situation? She asked.
Those were some of the questions tackled during the virtual meeting on the program themed “Cervical Cancer and HPV Vaccination: Matters Arising”, put together by the Network of Reproductive Health Journalists of Nigeria (NRHJN).