Kenya to adopt single dose vaccine to prevent cervical cancer

Kenya is among countries expected to stop the second dose of the vaccine that prevents cervical cancer, according to the World Health Organisation.

Kenyan girls aged nine to 14 years currently get two jabs six months apart, but most never return for the second dose anyway.

The Kenya National Immunisation Technical Advisory Group is now expected to recommend that one dose is enough, in line with the WHO advisory.

At least 50 per cent of eligible Kenyan girls have already been vaccinated but only less than three in every 10 returned for a second dose.

Multiple studies have proved just one dose provides comparable protection. This means countries can now stop struggling to vaccinate girls twice and instead strive to reach more unvaccinated girls.

The WHO Africa’s decision was announced on Wednesday at the first-ever global cervical cancer elimination forum in Colombia.

The conference was held to catalyse national and global momentum to end the disease, which is preventable.

“We have the knowledge and the tools to make cervical cancer history, but vaccination, screening and treatment programmes are still not reaching the scale required,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general.

Local civil society welcomed the single dose advisory and noted Kenya National Immunization Technical Advisory Group should update guidelines in Kenya.

“We from the civil society are very keen to support the WHO on implementation of single dose to expand coverage to more girls. It also addresses the high drop out from the second dose. This study on single dose was done in Kenya by Kemri and it confirmed that a single dose is effective. So we support the WHO 100 per cent,” said Benda Kithaka.

She is the executive director of Kilele Heath, a civil society organisation that utilises lived experiences for cancer survivors and caregivers to reach communities.

“This important advisory comes ahead of the International Women’s Day and it empowers women and girls to take charge of their health,” Kithaka added.

Donors at the cervical cancer conference in Colombia also announced nearly Sh85 billion (US$600 million) in new funding to eliminate cervical cancer.

It includes US$180 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, US$10 million from Unicef, and US$400 million from the World Bank.

They said if the ambitions to expand vaccine coverage and strengthen screening and treatment programmes are fully realised, the world could eliminate cervical cancer for the first time.

“HPV vaccines are a miracle of modern medicine, yet too many girls in low- and middle-income countries do not have access to them,” said Dr Chris Elias, the president of global development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “There is no reason why women should die from cervical cancer when a vaccine to prevent it exists.”

Cervical cancer is the deadliest cancer among women in Kenya, killing more than 3,200 women every year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Kenya introduced the HPV vaccine into the routine immunisation schedule in 2019.

As of 2023, just about 56 per cent of girls aged nine-14 years had received the first jab. Twenty-eight per cent had received the second jab.

All HPV vaccines have a high efficacy (close to 100 per cent) in preventing cervical cancer.

This week, Kenya Medical Research Institute published the strongest-ever study showing one dose of any HPV vaccine is as effective as two or more doses.

The study was published in the Lancet by Prof Nelly Mugo, the head of sexual reproductive adolescent child health research programme at Kemri, and her colleagues.

They observed girls who received single or multiple doses in Kenya and Tanzania for two years.

They found just one or more doses had at least 97 per cent efficacy levels.

“These results from the first two randomised trials of the single-dose schedule provide the strongest available evidence that one dose of HPV vaccine induces immune responses in young girls that are comparable to those seen in young women [who received two doses],” the researcher said.

Their study is titled “Comparing one dose of HPV vaccine in girls aged 9–14 years in Tanzania (DoRIS) with one dose in young women aged 15–20 years in Kenya (KEN SHE).”