ISLAMABAD: Health experts have warned that cervical cancer kills eight women every day in Pakistan, despite being a disease that can largely be prevented through the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.
“If effective measures are not taken, the burden of this disease is expected to triple over the next 70 years,” Dr Muneeba Ahsan Sayeed, working with Dow University of Health Sciences, said.
She was speaking at a seminar titled ‘HPV Vaccine: Separating Facts from Fiction’, jointly organised by the Department of Microbiology and the Association of Molecular and Microbial Sciences, in Karachi.
The expert added that it typically takes 15 to 20 years — or even longer — for an HPV infection to develop into cervical cancer.
She warned that internationally, one woman dies every two minutes from cervical cancer, and 90 per cent of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.
Out of 660,000 cervical cancer cases reported worldwide annually, 95 per cent are linked to HPV infections, she added.
“In Pakistan alone, between 4,700 to 4,800 new cervical cancer cases were reported in 2023, resulting in nearly 3,000 deaths — a mortality rate of 64 per cent,” she said, adding that while the proportion of reported cases may seem low, this is due to chronic underreporting, lack of routine screening, and the absence of a national cancer registry.
Dr Muneeba added that after India, with the highest number of children who have not received any routine vaccinations.
This figure stands at 419,000 children, according to data from a recent study published in the British medical journal The Lancet, she said.
District Health Officer for Karachi East, Dr. Zahid Solangi, noted encouraging progress in rural areas, where many families have ensured their daughters receive the HPV vaccine.
He confirmed that the vaccine will remain available until December, after which it will be incorporated into Pakistan’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI).
Dr. Kiran Iqbal Masood from Aga Khan University elaborated on the human papillomavirus (HPV), explaining how it interacts with human DNA and can lead to dangerous mutations. She stressed that HPV is not only spread through sexual contact, underlining the importance of widespread vaccination.
Meanwhile, Dr. Farhan Essa, CEO of a private diagnostic laboratory, emphasized the critical role of youth in national development. He praised the government’s initiative to offer the HPV vaccine free of charge and urged young people — particularly girls — to take full advantage of this opportunity to protect their health.
