Health ministry lays emphasis on jabs against cervical cancer

by Abdallah Msuya

THE Ministry of Health has urged all parents to ensure that their daughters were vaccinated against cervical cancer during the upcoming nationwide campaign.

Health officers here joined the Minister for Health, Mr Hamad Rashid Mohamed, in calling upon young women to go for the vaccination. “You have to utilise this opportunity. Get the jab which is available free of charge to females aged 12 to 30,” the minister said during a sensitisation meeting with local leaders.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) the vaccination protects young women against two strains of the sexually-transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV) which are responsible for 70 per cent of cervical cancers.
The minister dismissed as false, worries that the jab was unsafe and had several side effects. “It has been approved as safe by WHO and our Zanzibar Food and Drugs Agency (ZFDA),” she assured emphatically. The vaccination campaign is set to be launched next Tuesday in Zanzibar.