By Our Reporter
The Director General of the National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (NICRAT), Prof. Usman Malami Aliyu, has revealed that the Institute has concluded plans to launch what he described as massive awareness campaign on Human Papiloma Virus (HPV) vaccine uptake.
He disclosed this when members of Papilomavirus Society (IPVS), Nigeria Chapter, paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Abuja, yesterday.
The awareness campaign, according to him, is to ensure all Nigerians are aware of the benefits of receiving the HPV vaccine.
Prof. Malami noted that NICRAT is conscious of its mandates, hence, places great importance on awareness creation on causes, prevention of all forms and cancers and the general activities of the Institute in the area of research and treatment.
He explained that NICRAT has partnered with both local and international organisations to improve cancer research, treatment and capacity building of healthcare workers in the country.
He commended the IPVS team for the visit and urged them to work closely with the recently inaugurated National Task Force on Cervical Cancer Elimination (NTF CCE) which has the mandate to ensure the elimination of cervical cancer in the country.
Earlier, the IPVS Team Lead, Dr. Marc Steben, commended NICRAT for its effort in combating cancer in Nigeria, stressing that the global community is watching closely the great work NICRAT is doing in the area of the HPV vaccination.
He further applauded NICRAT for mobilizing and working together with all stakeholders in the fight against cancer, noting that there are many interesting things happening in Nigeria in the area of cancer with many components in place which need to be connected.
“If you do research, you have access to data, as fast as you can connect screening, vaccine and cancer data, the faster you will be able to evaluate if your means are directed at the right place,” he said.
Dr. Steben formally invited the NICRAT Director General to serve as Guest Speaker in this year’s International HPV Awareness Day which will take in Abuja.
Speaking, the Country Ambassador/Caretaker President of IPVS, Nigeria Chapter, Prof. Mohammed Manga, advised NICRAT to catalogue all adverse effects discovered during HPV vaccination since the beginning of the flag-off in the country last year.
He reiterated that this is eight months after the initial flag-off of the HPV vaccine in the country, hence, the need for a comprehensive list of those who had adverse effect in the first one week, one month and six months of the flag-off.
He said that the catalogue of the adverse effect will help in demystifying the myth people have on the HPV vaccination uptake.
Prof. Manga lamented the lack of HPV research agenda in Nigeria, and therefore, advocated for the formulation of an agenda for HPV vaccine research which will involve different components including the academia, CSOs, other professional groups, basic sciences, clinical sciences and social implementation science for them to come together and build up what he described as a repository of information in the country.
He further explained that IPVS has membership across the world and that there are different forms of membership in which one of them is group membership and therefore urged technical staff of NICRAT to join.
