Bishkek, March 31, 2022. As part of comprehensive prevention and reduction of cervical cancer, the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic has included vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) in the National Immunization Schedule. In September 2022, the introduction of HPV vaccination among adolescent girls aged 11 is planned to begin.
HPV vaccines were developed more than 15 years ago to fight cervical cancer and are now widely used around the world, including in the countries of Central Asia, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe.
Cervical cancer is the third most common type of cancer in women and is a serious public health problem worldwide. Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women in Kyrgyzstan and causes more than 300 deaths every year. According to WHO estimates, about 600 women in Kyrgyzstan develop cervical cancer each year. This type of cancer ranks 2nd among the leading cancers in women in the country and is the most common form of cancer in women aged 15 to 44. The incidence of cervical cancer in Kyrgyzstan is 20.4 cases per 100,000 women, which is the highest rate among the countries of Central Asia and 1.3 times higher than the global average.
In 2018, more than 560,000 women worldwide developed cervical cancer and more than 300,000 died from the disease.
The main cause of cervical cancer in women is the human papillomavirus — one of the most common viruses in the world. Chronic HPV infection leads to the development of cervical cancer in women, as well as oropharyngeal cancer, anogenital cancer and other diseases in both men and women, said A.B. Akmatova, Head of the Public Health Department of the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic.
The National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG), taking into account the burden of disease, the availability of highly effective and safe vaccines to prevent infection with high-risk oncogenic HPV types and to protect adolescent girls, and the well-functioning school vaccination system, issued evidence-based recommendations to introduce HPV vaccination for adolescent girls aged 11 into the immunization schedule. NITAG also recommended that, in the first year of introduction, girls aged 12-14 be vaccinated in addition to the main target group of 11-year-olds.
HPV vaccination will protect adolescent girls from a deadly disease throughout their lives and help achieve the Global goals for eliminating cervical cancer as a public health threat in the Kyrgyz Republic.
Since 2006, when the first vaccines were approved for use, hundreds of millions of people around the world have received HPV vaccines. Clinical trial data, as well as the results of vaccine safety monitoring after their widespread use began, have demonstrated the high safety and effectiveness of HPV vaccines. Countries that introduced HPV vaccines earlier have obtained convincing evidence of the positive impact of vaccination: the prevalence of HPV infection has decreased by more than 70%, and the prevalence of precancerous conditions and invasive forms of cervical cancer among vaccinated young women has decreased by more than 2 times compared with the period before the vaccines were introduced.
Until now, HPV vaccination was only available in private clinics or abroad, and people had to pay a high price for it. To solve this problem, starting in September 2022, the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic plans to vaccinate adolescent girls against HPV free of charge in all healthcare facilities in the country.
Republican Center for Immunoprophylaxis of the Kyrgyz Republic.
