Ludhiana gears up for HPV vaccination campaign for adolescent girls

Preparations are underway in the district to roll out the HPV vaccination campaign aimed at preventing cervical cancer. Following the state-level launch in Patiala by Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh on Friday, the Ludhiana health authorities are now gearing up to implement the programme at the local level.

A district task force meeting is scheduled for Monday to finalise logistics.

The campaign is part of a nationwide initiative by the Central Government to address the rising number of cervical cancer cases among women. In the state, the programme will target adolescent girls aged 14 to 15 years, administering a single dose of HPV vaccine in the left shoulder. The drive will run for 90 days, with the first phase covering 10 community health centres (CHCs), four sub-district hospitals (SDHs) and one district hospital. The goal is to vaccinate approximately 35,000 girls in the district. The vaccine will be provided free of cost at designated government health facilities.

The special campaign will run in mission mode over a three-month period, during which eligible girls can receive the vaccine daily at designated facilities. Thereafter, the vaccine will continue to be available on routine immunisation days.

The Civil Surgeon, Ramandeep Kaur, confirmed that discussions in the Monday’s meeting would pave the way for the immediate rollout.

Despite being largely preventable through vaccination and early screening, cervical cancer continues to impose a heavy burden on families and the healthcare system. The nationwide HPV vaccination programme directly addresses the challenge by preventing HPV infection before it can progress to cancer, the Civil Surgeon said.