At a meeting organized by the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI) at AIIMS, Delhi urged the Union government to include an indigenously developed cervical cancer vaccine in its immunization program and administer the same to girls for free.

The theme of the meeting was "accelerating action for a cervical cancer-free country." Cervical cancer occurs due to a high-risk HPV infection. Around 453 million Indian women aged 15 and above are at risk of developing cervical cancer.

Dr. Shantha Kumari, President of FOGSI, stated that if the government takes an initiative as it did during COVID-19 to vaccinate every person in the country for free, cervical cancer can also be eliminated from India.

While speaking on the importance of screening and vaccination, she added that every year, almost 1.2 lakh women develop cervical cancer, out of which, nearly 77,348 of them die of the disease. The cost factor of the vaccine and less awareness among women are major hurdles in the prevention and detection of the disease.

She added that currently, HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccines are only available in private hospitals and cost up to Rs 4,000 per dose. On the other hand, the country’s first indigenous HPV vaccine is expected to come up at the end of this year, which will be priced around Rs 200-400.