Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, 2024 announced the government’s plans to focus on vaccination against cervical cancer for girls aged 9 to 14 as part of her Interim Budget 2024.
- The Finance Minister also announced multiple other health-related schemes in her speech, including extending Ayushman Bharat cover to all Asha workers and Anganwadi workers and helpers.
Cervical cancer
- Cervical cancer, which develops in a woman’s cervix, is the second-most common cancer among women in India.
- According to WHO, almost all cervical cancer cases (99%) are linked to infection with high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV), an extremely common virus transmitted through sexual contact.
- India accounts for nearly a quarter of all cervical cancer deaths in the world.
- In June 2022, the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization had recommended the introduction of HPV vaccine in the universal immunisation with “a one-time catch-up for 9-14 year-old adolescent girls followed with routine introduction at nine years.”
- Presently, the Serum Institute’s made-in-India vaccine against cervical cancer, CERVAVAC, is available in the private market for about Rs 2,000 per dose.
