Pakistan vaccinates 9 million girls against cervical cancer despite online backlash

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KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan has vaccinated about 9 million adolescent girls against the virus that causes cervical cancer, as part of a continuing national campaign that has overcome early setbacks fueled by skeptics online, the health minister said Friday.

Health Minister Mustafa Kamal said the campaign that began Sept. 15 is aiming to vaccinate 13 million girls aged 9 to 14 against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes most cervical cancers. He said the program so far achieved 70% of its goal.

The program has overcome what Kamal said were baseless rumors spread by some parents that the vaccine could cause infertility. He gave the vaccine to his own daughter live on stage at an event in Karachi this week to build confidence.

“By the grace of God, administering the vaccine to my daughter publicly had a huge impact,” Kamal told The Associated Press. “From the fifth day of the campaign, refusal rates began dropping and acceptance climbed to 70–80% in some districts.”

However, many parents are still reluctant.

“I have heard that the vaccination is being used to make women infertile and reduce the population of Muslims,” said Ali Sheikh, a mother of two in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province.

She said that “social media is full of such claims,” and that she was advised by relatives not to allow health workers to vaccinate her daughters.

Health worker Shamim Anwar, 52, said the job of administering the vaccines has been exhausting.

“It is very difficult work. Many parents refuse because of rumors and hesitate to let us vaccinate their daughters,” she said.

“Sometimes we even face humiliation, but we tolerate it because we have to complete the vaccination target,” she said, as she went door-to-door for the campaign in Karachi.

Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer among Pakistani women after breast and ovarian cancers. Globally, it is the fourth most common. Each year, between 18,000 and 20,000 women in Pakistan die of the disease, according to health authorities.

Experts promoted the campaign under the slogan “one jab will do the job.” Authorities set up vaccination centers and deployed teams to schools nationwide to reach as many girls as possible.

Kamal acknowledged that during the first days of the drive, refusals outnumbered acceptances, fueled by false claims that the vaccine campaign is a Western plot to cause infertility.

Officials say the vaccine, offered free of charge, typically causes only minor side effects.

The 13 million girls targeted in the initial campaign were in Punjab and Sindh provinces and in Pakistan-held Kashmir. The country plans to expand the coverage to additional areas by 2027, hoping to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem by 2030. It became the 149th country to add the HPV vaccine to its immunization schedule.

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Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed contributed to this story from Islamabad.