West Bengal to hold HPV vaccination camps in girls' schools to boost cervical cancer prevention

West Bengal Health Department is now planning to reach the doorsteps of all girls’ schools in the state and organise cervical cancer vaccination camps there.

An insider from the state health department said that before organising these vaccination camps on the campuses of the girls’ schools, the state government will take consent from the guardians of the students studying in those girls’ schools.

“The consent of a minimum of 50 guardians from a particular girls’ school will be necessary for that purpose. The district officials from the state health department will contact the headmistresses of the schools and request them to organise a meeting with the guardians and the health department officials. In those meetings, the guardians will be made aware of the importance of cervical cancer vaccination and the dangers of skipping such vaccination. After a detailed explanation, consent will be sought from the guardians to organise a cervical cancer vaccination camp in that respective institution,” said the state health department official.

He also explained the rationale for organising cervical cancer vaccination camps on the premises of the girls’ schools.

“From May 30 this year, the pilot project for vaccination camps to prevent cervical cancer among adolescent girls officially started in West Bengal, with Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari inaugurating the programme. From the end of May till July 10, a total of 1,92,940 girls have been vaccinated. However, the pace of vaccination has slowed down in the last two weeks. In this situation, the state government has taken a new decision to speed up the HPV vaccination campaign following high-level discussions. Hence, the decision has been taken to organise cervical cancer vaccination camps within the premises of the girls’ schools,” said a state health department official.

At the same time, he added that in case the camps are not possible on campus premises, the vaccination will be conducted at health centres nearest to those schools.

“Accordingly, all girls' schools have also been advised to do mapping with the nearest health centres. In each such vaccination camp, be it on the school premises or at the nearest health centres, there will be one medical officer, one vaccination staff member, and one data manager. One teacher from the school concerned will be given the responsibility as the coordinator of the camp,” the health department official said.

In each camp, there will be facilities for post-vaccination observation.

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