00:00Big breaking news. This is related to the health of the women of our country.
00:05The government of India has decided to wage a war on the cervical cancer.
00:09Remember, this is one of the leading causes of death for Indian women, especially in rural areas.
00:14Now, India is going to launch a nationwide HPV vaccination drive, which is going to target the human papilloma virus.
00:23Congress will be rolling out the, I beg your pardon, government will be rolling out the HPV vaccination across India.
00:30Very soon. Already, many states are offering this vaccine free to girls from 9 to 14 years of age.
00:37This will be a major step in fulfilling the swastanari promise that the government has made to the nation.
00:44And India will have free HPV vaccine for adolescent girls.
00:49This is the news we are getting right now.
00:51This is a huge step towards ensuring the safety and health of the women in our country.
01:04So, clearly, an initiative there from the government of India to ensure the women of the country stay safe.
01:12Remember, this is an extremely important vaccination which can protect women from future cancer.
01:18Joining us now is India Today's Sneha Mordani.
01:21Sneha, this is a huge initiative.
01:24Is this going to be Pan India, a universal free vaccine for all girls of a certain age?
01:30It's going to be Pan India and it is a special immunization drive is what I'm being told through my
01:35sources.
01:36Now, the good news here is that this is an infection.
01:39The cervical cancer is something that can be prevented.
01:42It's preventable and the problem here was A, accessibility to these vaccines.
01:47Agar Dassel, that is the vaccine that's going to be given to young girls around the age of 14 is
01:52an expensive one.
01:53Anjali, it costs about 10,000 rupees for a single dose.
01:56But the government now already procuring 1 crore doses is what I hear from my sources.
02:01And aiming to procure 2.7 crore doses or 2.4 crore doses, I beg your pardon, by 2027.
02:07What's going to happen is that the network is going to widen.
02:11Younger girls getting this vaccine, which means cervical cancer, which is extremely common after breast cancer in India and outside
02:18also can be prevented.
02:20Efficacy rate of 93% to 100%.
02:23India is joining now the list of 160 countries which are rolling out vaccines against cervical cancer.
02:30These are vaccines against HPV, which is highly infectious in that sense.
02:34And also the country that is the 90th or 94st one, which is administering this particular type of vaccine that
02:42has been procured via the Gavi route in that sense.
02:46So, it's extremely important from the point of view of security health of younger girls, of an infection of a
02:52cancer, which is preventable.
02:54One of the few preventable cancers in the world that can be helped via a vaccine.
02:59What's also important is that this is not a live vaccine, which means unlike COVID, if you recall, when we
03:05would get vaccines, there would be a chance of an infection immediately after getting the vaccine.
03:10But this is not a live vaccine, which means that there will not be any HPV infection in a child
03:15the moment the vaccine is given.
03:17The government has indicated, of course, the network is going to be wide, gradual.
03:20And I'm learning that this vaccine is going to be launched in just a few days is what I'm being
03:26given to understand.
03:28Now, in 2024, the government had said that they're going to be encouraging vaccine against cervical cancer.
03:33Encourage was the word that was used by the government.
03:36But now it's translated to the government now incorporating this in the immunization program.
03:41It's a very big development.
03:42It's going to make this vaccine accessible to just so many young girls around the age of 14 who hit
03:48puberty and need it at that point in time.
03:51And that is the most appropriate time actually to administer this vaccine is what I've been given to understand.
03:58Very, very significant from the point of view of preventing a very common type of cancer that is seen in
04:05women across India and also outside.
04:07Right, right.
04:08Sneha, one thing it will also require is a huge awareness program because this vaccine is administered at an age
04:15where immunization is not the norm.
04:18So, this will require a huge awareness program.
04:20Does the government plan something?
04:22Absolutely.
04:23The government is looking at that as well.
04:24And as a country, we do immunize a lot.
04:27Now, we do already have the national immunization program.
04:30In that sense, as a country, we trust vaccinations.
04:33COVID was a slightly different sort of a situation.
04:36But the government is banking on that reliance factor in the sense that because as a country, we are vaccinating
04:43so many children already and there is a robust immunization program in the country.
04:49But that push, that word of encouragement would be there from healthcare workers across the country, community centers to encourage
04:56women and men to in fact get their young girls about 14 years of age to the center and get
05:05the vaccine to monitor them for side effects, which is fairly rare, is what is now being said at this
05:10point in time.
05:11So, all of that work is going to be done always in rural centers.
05:16You know, there is some sort of a push really which is needed to generate awareness around cervical cancer.
05:22And that is something that's being worked upon as well.
05:25Even as the government gets ready to in fact roll out the five doses, I told you a crore of
05:30them I hear are here in the country already.
05:32Right.
05:33Thank you very much Sneha for those details.
05:34So, clearly a huge effort there from the government of India to ensure safety and health of women.
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