…Vaccinates 480,000 girls, records highest coverage in Southwest
By Adeyinka Adeniran
The United Nations’ Children’s Funds, (UNICEF) has said engaging parents through religious leaders was key to Oyo State’s leading position in the region in the second phase of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination campaign, as no fewer than 480,000 girls between the ages of 9 and 14 years had taken the vaccine.
In this phase, 7.3 million adolescent girls were vaccinated during the HPV vaccination campaign across the 12 states, with Oyo state recording the highest coverage in Southwest.
Other states in the second phase included Kwara, Yobe, Niger, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Ondo, Ekiti, and Edo states. The list also includes: Katsina, Plateau, Borno, Cross River, Kogi, Imo, and Anambra states.
Corenews reports that the state government had in May 2024 introduced the HPV vaccine into the State Extended Programme on Immunisation (EPI), targeting girls aged 9–14 years to stem cases of cervical cancer in women.
The campaign began at St. Paul Anglican Primary School, Yanbule, Bashorun, with a target of reaching at least 500,000 young girls within the target age group.
Speaking on the latest feat, UNICEF Social Behavioural Change Specialist, Mrs Aderonke Akinola-Akinwole, during a one-day Social Mobilisation Technical Committee meeting at Oyo State Ministry of Information, said Oyo State achieved a 98 percent success rate in this ongoing statewide HPV vaccination campaign.
Mrs Akinola-Akinwole pointed out that engaging parents through religious leaders was key to Oyo State’s leading position in the region, stating, “In fact, Oyo state is overwhelmed, as the demand for the vaccine exceeds its supply. If there are vaccines, we should have surpassed 100%.
“Oyo State is the leading state in the Southwest with the highest level of coverage. The media did so much. Even before we would launch the second phase, the voice notes that we used to combat extremism across the other states came from people in the media, free of charge.
“Also, there was a strong synergy. I have never worked with the education ministry before in Oyo State. But the way education ministry took it so seriously, if there’s going to be any day that we get an award, it’s going to be education ministry. The Commissioner for Education, Science, and Technology, Professor Adelabu, wrote letters to say they should permit the vaccine’s administration in schools.”
Akinola-Akinwole declared that with the inclusion of the HPV vaccine into the State Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), girls aged 9–14 years can benefit from the free vaccines till December, but subsequently only for girls at age 9 from January 2025.
In her remarks, the immediate past President and Oyo State Amirah of the Federation of Muslim Women Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN), Dr. Bushra Oloso, also called for increased awareness of the HPV vaccine in local dialects in public places like the markets.
She also urged the government to ensure that out-of-school adolescents also benefit from the vaccination to prevent cervical cancer in girls in the future.
In a remark, the chairperson of the Women’s Wing of Christian Association Nigeria, Oyo State Chapter, Lady Dr Patricia Ifoma Amechi-Obi, urged parents not to relent in educating their daughters on the benefit of the HPV vaccine, saying they also end up as peers and educators of other children in their circle of influence.
