16m Girls to Be Vaccinated Against HPV By 2026, Says FG

•As MSD demands measures to end cancer

OnyebuchiEzigbo in Abuja

The federal government has said it is committed to vaccinating 16 million girls against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) by 2026 as part of efforts to combat cervical cancer and drastically reduce the health challenge it posed to Nigerians.

The ambitious goal by government came just as a leading global healthcare and biopharmaceutical company, the Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD said it is on a mission to accelerate the end-to-end elimination of cervical cancer and raise awareness about its debilitating impact in the country.

Speaking during a Cervical Cancer Side-session hosted by MSD Group at the 2025 edition of Africa Health Business conference held recently in Abuja, the Director for Disease Control and Immunization, at National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Garba Ahmed-Rufai, said that the agency is projecting to have over 16 million young girls vaccinated by 2026.

While highlighting the success achieved in terms of HPV vaccination, Ahmed-Rufai, said the agency has increased HPV vaccination to 14 million from 12.3 million girls vaccinated as at May 2024.

He said: “We changed the narrative by describing the HPV vaccine as a vaccine against poverty. When there is cancer in the family, it is not the person affected that suffers the most.

“It is the entire family because they will have to spend resources for the treatment. We got more people to our side using this strategy.”

“We started the HPV vaccination roll out in October 2023. We worked through a phased approach where we went to 16 states and the FCT in the first phase and we subsequently rolled out in the remaining states. By May 2024, we had vaccinated 12.3 million girls.

“And as we stand today, one of our biggest achievements is that we have crossed the 14 million mark and we’re going for the 15-million mark. By next year, over 16 million girls would have been vaccinated”.

Garba-Rufai said the changing the narrative in the campaign against cancer has helped to change people’s perception about the disease.

On his part, Managing Director of MSD for South Africa and the sub-Saharan African region, ZweliBashman said there is an urgent need to accelerate action to towards elimination of cancer in Nigeria.

He said that MSD is on mission to accelerate the end-to-end elimination of cervical cancer and raise awareness about its debilitating impact.

Quoting statistics from WHO, Bashman said it is estimated that there are 102,000 new cancer cases yearly as well as 72,000 cancer-related deaths in in the country, thus making cancer one of the leading causes of deaths in Nigeria.

He said that cervical cancer alone is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women in Nigeria.

“Around 12,075 new cases and 7,968 deaths are recorded yearly, ranking the country as the 7th globally among nations with the highest number of cervical cancer cases.

“According to a 2022 World Health Organization report, Africa accounts for 23 per cent of global cervical cancer deaths, while 19 of the 20 countries with the highest burden are located in sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.

Bashmannotedthat while progress had been made since the launch of the WHO Global Strategy for Cervical Cancer Elimination, a lot more needs to be done to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer. 

 He said: “We must accelerate the programme because every day that passes under the avoidable threat of cervical cancer leaves a lasting mark on our people, our economy and our future.

Bashman further commended the efforts of the Nigerian government towards eliminating the cervical cancer scourge while calling for concerted efforts from various stakeholders to speed up the eradication of the ailment.

He reiterated the global healthcare provider’s backbone support for African countries in their battle against cervical cancer and pledged MSD’s continuous support for Africa’s journey towards eliminating cervical cancer.

“Our HPV vaccine prevents up to 90 percent of cervical cancer cases by targeting high-risk HPV strains, many relevant to Africa,” he declared.

Earlier in his presentation titled ‘Accelerating cervical cancer elimination in Nigeria: From policy to practice’, Honorary Consultant, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University College Hospitral, Ibadan, Prof. Imran Morhason-Bello, said that Nigeria has the largest cohort of people that have been vaccinated against cervical cancer globally.

“Between 2023 till date, over 13 million young girls have been inoculated with the HPV vaccine.  I commend the Nigerian government’s cervical cancer elimination efforts describing them as groundbreaking.

“I’m happy that the current government under the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare established for the first time a national task on cervical cancer elimination. I have done research to find out whether there is a similar response from any other country in sub-Saharan Africa and there is none,” he declared.

Morhason-Bello echoed the need for more concerted efforts as large number of women still remain susceptible to cervical cancer.

According to him, “60 million women in Nigeria are at risk of developing cervical cancer, while 22 women die daily.”

Further according to him, the HPV vaccination program is facing significant obstacles from misinformation and those opposed to vaccination.

“People were told that girls who took the vaccine would not be able to bear children. There were also accusations that young girls would become promiscuous as a result of taking the vaccine,” he said.