To minimise the incidence of the human papillomavirus among Ghanaian women, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) will launch a vaccine programme targeting pre-adolescents aged 9 to 14 by the end of this year.
Given the rise of cervical cancer, this national immunisation attempts to immunise teenagers before they engage in sexual activity.
Dr. Kwame Amponsah-Achiano, Programmes Manager for the Expanded Programme on Immunisation at the Ghana Health Service, emphasised the need to provide a two-dose vaccination to each child.
“Because we have previously done a pilot to learn lessons, we will roll out a statewide vaccination, with our focus typically on young people before they begin their sexual lives. So by the end of the year, we should have begun vaccinations.”
“While we were doing the piloting, we had to give three doses, then it came to two, and now we are talking of one, but the one dose is also premised on the fact that we need to have a well-established screening, but we are likely to do two doses because that is the best card put forward.”
According to the ICO/IARC Information Centre on HPV and Cancer, Ghana has a population of 10.6 million women aged 15 and over who are at risk for cervical cancer. According to current statistics, 2797 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer per year, with 1699 dying from it. Cervical cancer is the second most common malignancy among Ghanaian women, as well as among women aged 15 to 44. There is currently no data available on the HPV load in Ghana’s general population.
However, in Western Africa, which includes Ghana, around 4.3% of women in the general population are expected to be infected with cervical HPV16/18 at any given time, and HPVs 16 or 18 are responsible for 55.6% of invasive cervical malignancies.
