HPV Vaccine Is Effective, Safe For Nigerian Girls–NSSF

Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund (NSSF), an organisation dedicated to transforming health outcomes in Nigeria, has urged Nigerian parents to ensure their girls, ages nine to 14 get the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine once the national campaign commences.

The Chief Executive Officer, NSSF, Dr Fejiro Chinye-Nwoko, at a virtual media parley to unveil NSSF 3rd WeNaija campaign said 60.9 million girls and women over 15 years are at risk for cervical cancer and over 80 per cent of new cervical cancer cases occur in young girls and women living in rural parts of Nigeria.

Chinye-Nwoko, however, disclosed that HPV vaccine can be the game changer, as it has been proven as the most cost-effective means to tackling the HPV.

While the HPV vaccine campaign is yet to be rolled out in Nigeria, the CEO averred that there is need to increase awareness, demystifying the myths and misconceptions surrounding the vaccine and promote the uptake of the HPV vaccines through social media.

“This is why NSSF, with the support of Global Citizen, has launched its ‘3rd WeNaija Awareness to Action Campaign’, to reskill and retool the Nigerian youthful population to promote community participation.

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‘’We plan to engage Nigerian youth through the use of social media platforms by leveraging their content creation skills to achieve the HPV vaccine programme. The campaign is geared towards mobilizing, inspiring, empowering and up-skilling Nigeria’s vibrant, creative, and tech-savvy youth population. The campaign will allow the youth to be a part of something inspirational with widespread impact,” Chinye-Nwoko further disclosed.

On what informed the annual youth engagement campaign, the CEO said that as an organisation dedicated to improving health outcomes, NSSF explained that an estimated 74.9 million are between the ages of 18 and 35, as reported by the Population pyramid 2023.

“We believe that the “WeNaija” Campaign is an innovative way to get more youths between the ages of 18- 35 involved in asking the right questions to improve their communities and hold leaders accountable. We aim to strengthen leadership and governance of the health sector by supporting the youth to advocate on important health issues that affect them and their communities such as HPV infection and vaccine availability.