The high burden of cervical cancer necessitated the need initial focus on girls with the human papillomavirus vaccine, the Ministry of Health has said.
Despite HPV being a cause of penile and anal cancer in men, the ministry has targeted girls aged 10 to 14 years with the jab.
On Tuesday, the Head of National Cancer Control Programme Mary Nyangasi said the few doses received at the initial stage of the rollout were also a hindering factor to reaching more people.
The few doses the country received at the initial stages of the vaccine rollout was another factor
“The reason why we started with girls is because cervical cancer is a problem in Kenya so we must first address those with the problem before we move to the other cohorts,” Nyangasi said.
“Initially we targeted only nine year old girls because the doses we received were very few so we had to give it to the people who will most need it and those were girls who were nine years,” she added.
According to ministry data, cervical cancer is the second most cancer and the leading cause of cancer deaths among Kenyan women.
The data indicates that the disease kills 3,200 women every year translating to nine deaths daily.
Globocan report of 2020 indicates that 15 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every day in Kenya.
“We managed to negotiate now we are able to get doses that can reach nine to 14 year old and we are still negotiating for more doses, the world is moving towards vaccinating all boys and girls between 9 to 14 years.”
Some countries like Britain and Australia began vaccinating boys because HPV also causes penile and anal cancer in men, as well as genital warts.
Studies show that because HPV is mostly sexually transmitted, vaccinating boys and men also helps protect women.
