Zimbabwe shed 24 percent of its Human Papillomavirus (HPV) coverage which was 91 percent in 2019 to 67 percent in 2021.
By Kudakwashe Pembere
The drop was attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic which disrupted immunization campaigns not only in Zimbabwe but the rest of the world.
In Zimbabwe, around 4 million women aged 15 years and older are at risk of developing cervical cancer.
In a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) State of the World’s Children 2023 regional brief for Eastern and Southern Africa, it was noted that the pandemic severely impacted immunization campaigns.
The report noted that the closure of schools which are usually the catchment area for the immunization of girls against HPV affected the campaigns.
The pandemic had a particularly severe impact on the effort to vaccinate children against human papillomavirus (HPV). Over the course of the pandemic, the world lost more than a quarter of global coverage of HPV vaccination. That large fall reflected in part the closure of schools, where many children receive their vaccinations,” read the report.
According to a study done last year, Zimbabwe has one of the highest incidence rates of cervical cancer in the world – 61.7 per 100,000 women. The government of Zimbabwe introduced bivalent HPV vaccine with a 0,12 month schedule to all 10–14 year old girls using a pulsed-campaign approach in May 2018 (dose 1) and May 2019 (dose 2).
The HPV vaccine helps in the protection of young girls against cervical cancer.
