India trains thousands of medics to promote vaccine in huge push to end cervical cancer

Tens of thousands of doctors across India are being trained to promote the HPV vaccine, in a push to eliminate cervical cancer in the country.

They will check with mothers attending medical appointments that they intend to vaccinate their daughters, and visit schools and community centres armed with facts and slideshows to counter vaccine disinformation.

One in five cervical cancer cases worldwide occur in India – and the overwhelming majority of those are caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV.

HPV vaccination has become routine practice in many countries and has been available in India privately since 2008, but with low take-up.

Sutapa Biswas, co-founder of the Cancer Foundation of India, said imported vaccines were expensive and people were reluctant to spend money on prevention. Misinformation surrounding deaths during, but unrelated to, an HPV vaccine trial in the country had left it with “baggage”, she said.

However, India has recently started manufacturing its own cervical cancer vaccine, and the government is expected to make it part of the national vaccination programme later this year or early next year.

Last year about 11,000 members of the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (Fogsi) underwent virtual training. About 100 of those trainees have now become the National HPV Faculty and will each train 500 general physicians from the Indian Medical Association over the next six months.

The idea, Biswas said, “is to build confidence”. Training includes practical information on dosages, details of the World Health Organization’s push to eliminate cervical cancer, and advice on how to answer common questions.

The implementation of India’s cervical screening programme had been sluggish, she said. Most cancers are diagnosed late, and most people’s experiences of the disease relate to death.

Many non-specialist doctors “didn’t even know that a cancer could be eliminated and vaccination could be such a gamechanger”, Biswas said.

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Source: The Guardian, 1 April 2025