Islamabad: Pakistani parents should not allow myths about infertility to deprive their daughters of the life-saving HPV vaccine, which safely protects against cervical cancer, health experts and parliamentarians said on Saturday, urging trusted community leaders to counter misinformation that undermined Pakistan’s first nationwide vaccination campaign.
Vice Chancellor of the Health Services Academy Prof. Shahzad Ali Khan said widespread myths linking HPV vaccination with infertility had no scientific basis, stressing that HPV infection itself could adversely affect future fertility while vaccination protected girls against cervical cancer.
He was speaking at the seminar “HPV Vaccination and the Commercial Introduction of Cecolin 9: Protecting Generations – HPV Vaccination, Policy & Public-Private Partnership,” alongside parliamentarians, senior physicians, public health experts, gynaecologists, immunisation specialists and representatives of the pharmaceutical industry.
The event was organised by LDS Pharma, a company of the viSole Group of Companies, in collaboration with Xiamen Innovax Biotech Co. Ltd., China, at a local hotel in Islamabad and attended by parliamentarians, paediatricians, gynaecologists, oncologists, immunisation experts, public health professionals and representatives of the pharmaceutical industry.
Prof. Shahzad said more than 150 countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Indonesia, had introduced HPV vaccination, while Iran was manufacturing its own HPV vaccine without any evidence of adverse effects on fertility. Pakistan, he added, was the 149th country to introduce the vaccine, which was supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), Gavi and religious scholars, with Pakistani ulema issuing fatwas endorsing its use.
He noted that Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal had vaccinated his own daughter to demonstrate confidence in the vaccine’s safety and rejected conspiracy theories portraying HPV vaccination as a foreign or political agenda. He said misinformation spread fastest through TikTok and WhatsApp and urged health authorities to counter false claims through physicians, teachers, community elders and religious leaders rather than government spokespeople alone.
Prof. Shahzad stressed that public confidence would improve only when HPV vaccination became a community-led public health movement instead of merely a government campaign.
Chief Guest Shaista Parvaiz Malik, Convener of the National Parliamentary Taskforce on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), described HPV vaccination as a life-saving intervention, saying she understood its importance because her own sister had died of cervical cancer.
“I do not want another woman to die from a completely preventable disease,” she said, urging parents to vaccinate their daughters.
She said Pakistan’s first HPV vaccination campaign had failed because it was poorly organised and lacked an effective awareness campaign in mainstream, digital and social media, allowing anti-vaccine groups to spread misinformation. The resulting misconceptions discouraged not only ordinary families but even educated people and doctors from vaccinating their daughters. She urged the commercial supplier to keep the vaccine affordable so that girls from all socioeconomic groups could benefit.
Renowned physician and former caretaker health minister of Punjab Prof. Javed Akram said Pakistan’s cancer burden continued to rise, with more than 120,000 people dying from cancer every year. Since an effective vaccine was available to prevent one of these cancers, every girl aged 10 to 12 years should receive it before exposure to the virus.
He explained that HPV had more than 200 variants, around 40 of which could cause cancer, while types 16 and 18 were responsible for most cervical cancers. The newly introduced Cecolin 9 vaccine protected against nine high-risk HPV variants. Calling vaccines among the safest medical interventions ever developed, he urged parliamentarians to encourage parents to vaccinate their children.
Prof. Syeda Batool Mazhar, President of the Pakistan Menopause Society, said Pakistani gynaecologists frequently saw women with advanced cervical cancer when treatment options were largely limited to palliative care. She called for vaccination, screening and early diagnosis, regretting that misconceptions had prevented even doctors from vaccinating their daughters during the previous campaign.
Director General of the Federal Directorate of Immunization Dr. Musa Khan acknowledged that Pakistan’s previous HPV vaccination campaign had been poorly planned and heavily affected by misinformation on social media, restricting vaccination coverage to just 58 percent. He pledged better communication and stronger community engagement during the second phase of HPV vaccination in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, saying lessons learnt from the first campaign would help improve public confidence and coverage.
Welcoming participants, Zafar Mahmood, Chief Executive Officer of viSole Group of Companies, said LDS Pharma had partnered with Xiamen Innovax Biotech Co. Ltd., China, to introduce the nine-valent Cecolin 9 HPV vaccine in Pakistan, describing it as an important step towards preventing cervical cancer through public-private collaboration. He said wider access to HPV vaccination would help protect future generations from a preventable cancer.
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