Around 8,000 vials of the human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) were wasted at Delhi State Cancer Institute (DSCI) in the past two years due to no takers.

The HPV vaccine is given to prevent cervical cancer and was first started in Delhi in November 2016 at the Shahdara branch of DSCI. It is the only government institution providing the vaccine for free to adolescent girls aged 11 to 15 years.

Dr Kishore Singh, DSCI medical director said that they were procuring a fresh supply of the vaccine and would restart the vaccination soon. The contract with the company based on the old rate had expired and they have picked up stock for replacement. He also added that the COVID-19 pandemic hampered the process.

An official said that due to the pandemic more focus was on COVID-19 vaccination, and hardly there were any takers for HPV vaccines which resulted in the expiry of around 8,000 vials. As only very little stock was left and they had requested the state health department for procurement of the vaccine to import it from other countries.  If presently, anyone came for the vaccine, then they would be provided from the limited stock.

Another official from the hospital said that two types of the vaccine one is Cervarix from the UK and Gardesil from the US were being procured, which were costly but they were providing them for free to adolescent girls.

When the program was launched, more hesitation was there, but after 2018 girls became aware of the need for the vaccine. The official in charge of the program said that they met the principals of both government and private schools and asked them to educate girls on HPV and cervical cancer. Currently, they were focusing on east Delhi. They had planned to expand the program, but couldn’t due to lack of manpower and infrastructure.

An official said that before the pandemic, DSCI was vaccinating 250-300 girls every month. Around 4000 girls had been vaccinated since August 2020. He said that even a single dose was enough to boost immunity to resist cervical cancer. Currently, around 500 girls who were supposed to take their second and third doses were coming, along with the first-timers.

Source: ET Healthworld