Residents of Anambra State have been advised to disregard all the misinformation being circulated on social media about the Human papillomavirus, HPV Vaccine that was recently introduced in the state.
Recall that the wife of the State Governor, Mrs Nonye Soludo had on Tuesday, at Aguleri in Anambra East Council Area of the state, flagged off free HPV vaccination across the state and the introduction of the vaccine into the State Immunization Schedule.
The vaccine, which is for girls between the ages of 9 and 14, is to protect the recipients against Cervical Cancer, which is a leading cause of death among women.
However, this activity has been followed with a lot of reactions by faceless individuals as well as the Indigenous People of Biafra, asking residents of the state and the entire Southeast not to make themselves available to receive the vaccines.
They have queried why the vaccine is targeted at teens who are considerably not sexually active and not sexually active women.
But in a press conference to mark the introduction of the vaccine in Awka, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr Afam Obidike described the vaccine as a well-thought-out initiative of the state government to protect young girls and women in the state against Cervical Cancer.
Wondering why faceless individuals would be peddling false information just to cause disaffection among the people, the Commissioner made it clear that the vaccines have been tested and found to be safe and effective and with no complications.
He further explained that the vaccine is not a new introduction but has been in use for many years, explaining that the state government is only bringing it now to the poor, who would not have been able to access the vaccines before, due to the huge cost.
“Statistics show that 22 women die of cervical cancer daily in Nigeria and this ailment costs millions of naira to treat.
“The cost of the vaccine in developed countries is over 100 dollars, and that is why the state is introducing the vaccine to prevent women from coming down with cervical cancer.
“The vaccine was not recently developed but has been existing. It has also proven to be very effective and with no complications. Even if there are complications, there are people trained to handle the issue,” he said.
On why the vaccine was targeted for girls between ages 9 and 14, Obidike said the decision is to protect them from the virus before they become sexually active, as the virus is sexually transmitted.
“We are looking to use the vaccine to secure the lives of our young girls before they become sexually active.
“The risk period is between ages 15 and 44 and anyone who takes this vaccine has been protected 80 percent from this virus
“For those that are already sexually active, they are not left out because through the goodwill of the wife of the governor, free screening, testing and treatment of cervical cancer have begun in the state since last year.
“so, I encourage our people to disregard this propaganda which is propagated for whatever reason the peddler is doing so,” the Commissioner said.
Also speaking, the Southeast Coordinator of the World Health Organization, WHO, Dr Chukwumuanya Igboekwu revealed that Enugu and Abia states had introduced the vaccine since 2023 and no negative reactions have been found among those who have received the vaccines.
Igboekwu expressed worry at the rate people peddle false information on matters they do not know of and said it is more worrisome that most of these persons are aware that the information they are peddling is false.
He called on the media to help propel the right information to the people on the issue to ensure that the targeted persons receive the vaccines.
“Some of these people, because they have found that false information trends very well on social media, spread these things on their handles to gain traffic. But this is to the detriment of the health of the people.
“Government must also put measures in place, to ensure that anyone caught engaging in such illegality would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
“There should be a limit to the jokes and propaganda of content creators, who mischievously distort information or misinform the public,” Igboekwu insisted.
