PUCHONG, May 21 — The Health Ministry (MOH) will administer the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to 719,236 female students.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Lukanisman Awang Sauni said this backlog was caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in a global shortage of HPV vaccines.
“MOH has intensified the implementation of HPV catch-up immunisation for students who did not receive the HPV vaccine before leaving school.
“We have a supply of 802,000 doses, which means we have enough for the remaining students listed in our records. They will be vaccinated before the end of the 2024 school session in February 2025,” he said today.
He was speaking at a press conference for the soft launch of the Catch-Up HPV Immunisation Programme for Form 1 to Form 4 students at SMK Pusat Bandar Puchong 1 here, with Health deputy director-general (public health) Datuk Dr Norhayati Rusli also present.
Lukanisman said since the programme was introduced in 2010, 2,561,062 female students have received the HPV vaccine, which helps prevent cervical cancer.
He said the MOH would conduct continuous monitoring following the recent Covid-19 wave in Singapore, which saw a twofold increase in cases from May 5 to 11 compared with the previous week.
The ministry earlier reported Covid-19 cases in Malaysia had risen by 14.8 per cent to 1,230 cases from May 12 to 18. No fatalities have been reported since April 25.
— Bernama
