Interim Budget 2024: Free vaccination campaign for girls aged 9-14 years will be started soon for the prevention of cervical cancer.
Interim Budget 2024: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the country’s interim budget in the Lok Sabha today. This interim budget was also special because it was being presented before the Lok Sabha elections. While presenting the budget, the Finance Minister has enumerated many achievements of the Modi government. The Finance Minister said that a lot has been included in the budget regarding development in the health section. To prevent cervical cancer, free vaccination campaigns for girls aged 9-14 years will be started. This campaign will be started under Mission ‘Indradhanush’.
The highlights of the Interim Budget 2024 for the healthcare sector are as follows-
- The government will provide free cervical cancer vaccine to girls aged 9-14 years.
- Health cover under the Ayushman Bharat scheme will be extended to all ASHA and Anganwadi workers and assistants.
- Regarding maternal and child health care, the FM said, various schemes for maternal and child health care will be brought into sync. Anganwadis will be upgraded.
‘Serum Institute of India’ will make vaccine
Serum Institute of India (SII) will develop a vaccine called Cervavac to prevent cervical cancer, which provides protection against four strains of HPV – 16, 18, 6 and 11. SII CEO Adar Poonawala had already said that the price of the vaccine will be at Rs 200-400 a dose. Currently, there are cervical vaccines available in the market. The price of those vaccines is Rs 2,500-3,300 per dose.
Sikkim government was the first to start this campaign.
The Sikkim government purchased the vaccine named GAVI in 2016 and the vaccines were given to girls aged 9 to 14 years. Statistics show that according to the data of Sikkim government, 97% of girls were vaccinated under this program. Now they provide it as part of routine vaccination and the coverage percentage is around 88-90%.
Vaccines will be given to girls aged 9-14 years
In this matter we should learn from Sikkim. There, girls aged 9-14 years were given vaccinations. Similarly, under this campaign we should be vaccinated to fight cervical cancer, after which the vaccine should be included as a part of routine vaccination for nine year old children. At the same time, Delhi government had also started these programs in its state, almost like Sikkim. The HPV vaccination program in Delhi was not successful because vaccines were available in only one of the state government hospitals.
