It's back to school! And in the next couple of weeks, the government will be rolling out mass vaccinations for Pre-Teen and Teen girls against the
Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) the culprit responsible for
Cervical Cancer.
There are about 40,000 new cervical cancer cases annually. Globally, it is the
fourth most frequent cancer in women.
The
World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends vaccination of all girls, and screening at least once every year.
The disease claims about seven women in Kenya every day- about 3,000 per year, according to statistics from the
Ministry of HealthThe
Ministry of Health will give girls aged 10 to 18 two free doses of the vaccine against the cancer-causing virus six months apart, at about 9,000 public, private and faith-based facilities countrywide so watch out for that.
However, the
Kenya Catholic Doctors Association (KCDA), questioned the decision to have 10-year-old girls vaccinated against HPV. Some parents are skeptical too.
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