The Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection has launched the vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV) for 2017-2018. Starting with this month, 15,000 girls will be able to get immunized with the quadrivalent vaccine Gardasil, IPN reports.

For the vaccine to be maximally efficient, the WHO recommends immunizing girls aged between 9 and 14, before the start of the sexual life. In Moldova, the girls born in 2007 will be vaccinated free, at request, at primary medical assistance institutions.

As it forms part of the GAVI program Moldova received 35,000 vaccines to the value of 86.16 lei apiece for 2017-2018. Half of the vaccines have been distributed to medical institutions.

According to Minister Stela Grigoras, vaccination will enable to protect teenage girls against cervical cancer that is the most common type of cancer, caused by the HPV. “We undertook to implement the anti-HPV vaccination program, which is absolutely necessary given the number of cases of disease and of deaths from this disease in Moldova. The carried out cost-effectiveness analysis shows that when the vaccination rate stands at 90%, we will save 98 lives each year and will economize on treatment for cervical cancer,” stated the minister.

OWO Representative to Moldova Haris Hajrulahovic said the World Health Organization admits that cervical cancer and other diseases caused by the HPV are a global public health problem. He recommended introducing the vaccine against the HPV in the national vaccination programs. According to him, raising a health generation is not the duty of the Government only and society should also become involved.

The vaccination consists of two stages. The second vaccine will be administered starting with June 2018.

A woman is daily diagnosed with cervical cancer and another woman dies from this disease each two days in Moldova. Over 1,500 women have been diagnosed with cervical cancer and more than 1,000 have died from it during the last five years.