Over 2.4m Sindh girls vaccinated against HPV

APP

Karachi: More than 2.4 million girls aged 9 to 14 years—66 percent of the target population—have been vaccinated during Sindh’s 12-day Human Papillomavirus (HPV) campaign, which concluded on Saturday.

To boost coverage, district health officers (DHOs) have been instructed to conduct an additional three-day “catch-up” drive from September 29 to October 1, focusing on union councils (UCs) with lower vaccination rates.

According to the Directorate of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), vaccination activities will continue in schools with less than 80 percent coverage or those not reached during the initial campaign.

Field teams and supervisors have been directed to participate actively in the catch-up drive without additional budget allocations.

On the campaign’s final day, 223,636 girls were vaccinated, achieving 73 percent of the daily target and raising overall coverage to 66 percent of the provincial goal.

The HPV vaccination drive is part of Sindh’s efforts to protect young girls against cervical cancer, with oversight from the EPI Directorate across all districts of the province.