PUTRAJAYA: The government will resume administration of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to Form One students this year, Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said.
He said previously, the HPV vaccine initiative, aimed at preventing cervical cancer among Form One female students, had to be postponed due to global supply shortage.
"However, the ministry has successfully procured 100,000 doses of the HPV vaccine (recently).
"It will be administered to Form One female students this year," she said during her New Year mandate speech at the ministry's headquarters here, today.
Last year, then health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said only six per cent of Form One female students were fully inoculated with the HPV vaccine in 2021 due to a global HPV vaccine shortage.
In 2020, Khairy said 97 per cent of Form One girls were fully inoculated with the HPV vaccine.
At the gathering, Dr Zaliha also announced the ministry's plan to activate the Child Immunisation Programme and Child Health Action Plan 2021-2030 to keep up efforts of achieving herd immunity in protecting infants and children from contracting infectious diseases.
"The number of infants and children that were inoculated is almost 30,000 in 2021 compared to 43,519 in 2020.
"As a result, the immunisation coverage for the Third Dose Polio vaccine did not reach the target of more than 95 per cent in 2021." she said.