Akwa Ibom has set a target of 69 percent coverage in this year’s human papilloma virus intensification campaign in its bid to prevent cervical cancer among young girls in the state.
This is about 15,000 of the young girls who have not engaged in sexual activities.
The intensification exercise which is to be carried out in five low-performing local government areas of Oruk Anam, Itu, Ikot Ekpene , Oron and Nsit Ubium is a follow up of the earlier campaign which was first launched in 2023.
David Umoh, a medical doctor and Akwa Ibom State immunisation exercise who stated this during an interview during the Non Expanded Programme on Immunisation stakeholders meeting in Uyo, the state capital stresses the importance of the activity as “we need to protect our young girls and their future a d prevent them from having cervical cancer.”
Noting that the vaccines are safe and free, Umoh said the target of 69 percent coverage for the HPV was achievable “because we have put mechanisms in place, recruited vaccination team who would be going out to deliver the services in the community, and we are creating awareness and demand for the uptake of vaccines by the care givers.”
According to him, it is a single dose vaccine for those who had not been vaccinated against HPV previously and for the group of girls who are sexually active .
Also speaking, Margaret Etim, the state health promotion officer urged the stakeholders who included religious leader, Civil Society Organisations and the media to create awareness about the exercise and to disabuse the minds of the people on the myths and misconceptions about the vaccines.
Etim who is also, director, community health services urged caregivers to devise strategies to reach out to the vulnerable groups and the out of school young girls by working with the Red Cross Society to deliver the vaccines accordingly while also leveraging on other health to reach the girl child.
Speaking also, Bunmi Gab-Umoden of the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) stresses the importance proper documentation of the data to reflect what has been achieved.
She said a lot was still needed to be achieved to reach over 47,000 young girls during the exercise and urged continued co coordination and the pooling of resources together to reach all the nine-year-old girls with the vaccine in the state.
During the campaign, spot checks would be conducted across three local government of Onna, a high performing , Etinan , a medium performing and Ikot Ekpene, a low performing areas.
