In an effort to minimize the incidence of human papillomavirus among Ghanaian women, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) will launch a vaccine program before the end of the year aimed at pre-adolescents aged 9 to 14.
Given the growing prevalence of cervical cancer, this countrywide immunization attempts to immunize teenagers before they engage in sexual activity.
Dr. Kwame Amponsah-Achiano, Programmes Manager for the Ghana Health Service’s Expanded Programme on Immunization, underlined the need of providing each child with two doses of the vaccine.
“Because we have already done a pilot which was to learn lessons, we will roll out a nationwide vaccination, and our focus is usually on young people before they start their sexual debut. So by the end of the year, we should have started the vaccination.”
“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.”
The ICO/IARC Information Centre on HPV and Cancer reports that 10.6 million women aged 15 and older in Ghana are at risk of acquiring 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.
