The Adamawa State Primary Healthcare Development Agency says it is targeting 388,180 girls between nine to 14 years for vaccination against the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) to prevent cervical cancer.

Suleiman Bashir, the agency’s executive chairman, made this known in an interview in Yola.

Mr Bashir said the sensitisation and vaccination of girls against the virus are ongoing and will last three months.

He added that the choice of girls between nine to 14 years for the vaccination is to protect and increase their immunity ahead of exposure to the virus.

In Borno and Yobe states, the exercise is yet to commence, while some people in the states said the vaccination is still a subject of controversy.

“People are saying that the vaccine is harmful to fertility; we need clarification on this allegation from the authorities concerned.

“Nobody is talking for now, and until that allegation is clarified, many parents won’t allow their daughters to be vaccinated,” Abdulkareem Ali, a parent with four daughters in Maiduguri, said.

Goni Abba, the director of public health in the Borno Ministry of Health, said the vaccination and enlightenment had yet to commence.

Mr Abba said the vaccination was just launched last week in Abuja and that representatives of the state who were in Abuja had just returned, and that the ministry needed to meet for the next line of action regarding the vaccination in the state.

In Yobe, where the exercise is also yet to commence, the head of programmes in the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Sabiu Suleiman, said arrangements had been concluded to start an enlightenment campaign on the virus.

The spokesperson in the Yobe State Ministry of Information, Ali Yawale, said the state was not included in the current schedule of the vaccination programme unveiled by the federal government.

He added, “the human papillomavirus vaccination was recently unveiled by the federal government, but Yobe is not on the present schedule.

“However, plans are underway to commence public enlightenment across the 17 local government areas about the vaccine.”

Mr Yawale said the media and other critical stakeholders, such as the traditional rulers, religious leaders, and civil society organisations, would be involved in the public enlightenment.

(NAN)