Pakistani parents reject HPV vaccine over fears of ‘infertility’

Islamabad: Misinformation plagues the first development of a vaccine for protecting Pakistani girls from cervical cancer, with parents knocking on their doors to healthcare workers and some schools closing for days.

The country’s first HPV vaccine campaign aimed to grant hole to 11 million girls – but since it ended on Saturday, only about half of the intended doses were administered.

A long -term conspiracy theory that vaccines produced by the West are used to limit the population is circulating online in Pakistan.

The misinformation has also spread that the vaccine disrupts young girls’ hormones.

“Some people refused. They closed their gates to us, and even hid information about their daughter’s age,” Vaccinator Ambreen Zehra said AFP While going from door to door to a lower -income neighborhood in Karachi.

Only half of the predicted vaccines had been granted, according to an employee of the Federal Health Department who spoke AFP on the condition of anonymity.

“Many girls we aim to arrive are still unmoved, but we are committed to ensuring that the vaccine remains available even after the campaign is completed so that more women and girls are vaccinated,” said Friday.

Said a teacher AFP On the condition of anonymity, no single vaccine had been granted to her school on the outskirts of Rawalpindi because parents would not give consent, which said other farm schools had also experienced.

A health officer who asked not to be named said that some private schools had resorted to the closure for several days to hit vaccine workers.

“On the first day we reached 29% of our goal, it wasn’t good, but it was fine,” said Syeda Rashida Batool, a leading Islamabad health employee, who began the campaign with a vaccination of her daughter.

“On the night of that first day, the videos began to circulate online, and then sank. Everything changed.”

A video of students who doubled with pain, after tears entered their class during a protest several years ago, was discovered online, claiming to show the consequences of the vaccine.

The popular leader of a right -wing party, Rashid Mehmood Soomro, said last week that the voluntary vaccine was forced to girls from the government.

“In fact, our daughters become barren,” he told a rally in Karachi.

‘Population control’

In 95% of cases, cervical cancer is caused by persistent human papillary infection (HPV)-a virus spreading through sexual activity, including non-penetrating sex.

The HPV vaccine, approved by the World Health Organization, is a safe and science based on cervical cancer protection and has a long history of life salvation in more than 150 countries.

Cervical cancer is particularly deadly in low and medium -income countries, such as Pakistan, where UNICEF reports that about two -thirds of 5,000 women diagnosed annually will die, though the number is probably undervalued.

This is due to a significant lack of awareness of the disease, the cultural taboos about sexual health and poor examination and treatment services.

It is emphasized by the devastating belief that only women with many sexual partners can contribute to sexually transmitted infections.

In Europe, where the HPV vaccine was extremely effective, there were about 30,000 diagnoses in all 27 EU nations in 2020, of which one -third of women died, according to the European Commission.

“My husband will not allow it,” said Maryam Bibi, a 30 -year -old mother in Karachi who said AFP Her three daughters will not be vaccinated.

“It is said that this vaccine will make children sterile. This will control the population.”

Humna Saleem, a 42 -year -old housewife in Lahore, said she thought the vaccine was “unnecessary”.

“All cancers are awesome. Why don’t we tell our boys to be faithful to their husbands instead of telling our girls to get more vaccines?” said AFP.

Pakistan – one of the two countries, along with Afghanistan, where polio is endemic – remains stubbornly resistant to vaccines as a result of misinformation and conspiracy theories.

After one year without cases of polio for the first time in 2023, the disease that causes a recurrence with 27 cases reported in 2025 so far.

Responding to overwhelming misinformation about HPV vaccine, Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal took the bold move to vaccinate his teenage daughter in front of television cameras.

“In my 30 -year political career, I have never made my family audience,” he told reporters.

“But the way my daughter is dear to me, the nation’s daughters are also dear to me, so I brought her in front of the media.”