A post-introduction evaluation (PIE) of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination programme in Gazipur, Bangladesh was carried out recently with the technical assistance from WHO. The PIE followed WHO protocol and tools adapted to the Bangladesh context and was conducted by teams composed of both national and international experts.
The HPV vaccine was recently introduced in Gazipur district by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, with support from Gavi - the Vaccine Alliance. To combat HPV, which can lead to certain types of cervical cancer, WHO recommends that girls are vaccinated between the ages of 9 - 13 years. In line with this, the Government of Bangladesh supported the vaccination of 10-year- old girls with two doses of vaccine, given 6 months apart. The girls were vaccinated through fixed and outreach routine immunization sessions.
The evaluation found that the HPV demonstration program was well implemented with a high coverage of 94 percent in the first round. The vaccine delivery strategy chosen was a mix of routine EPI fixed sites, outreach and school vaccination sessions. It was suggested that there is a need to increase the space at the EPI stores to accommodate vaccines and logistics and ensure adequate human resources at national and district community clinic-level stores for scaling up HPV vaccination nationally.