Community Awareness Vital For HPV Acceptance; Health Chief

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2025) Despite significant strides made during the HPV campaign, the parental approval for the vaccination remains a challenge to achieve maxima during the campaign. As many as 8402 girls were not vaccinated due to parental refusal, as per the data shared by the District Health Authority.

On its second day, the health teams achieved 75% of its daily target by vaccinating 49,783 girls across its first two days, out of a total campaign target of 3,95,609.

The cumulative daily target stands at 65,950, with 12,602 girls were missed due to multiple reasons including sickness and unavailability at schools and/homes.

Dr Ehsan Ghani, CEO DHA has urged the community influencers and mobilizers to support the campaign. Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Dr. Ghani revealed that refusal accounted for the majority at 66.7%.

"Addressing misinformation is seen as key to improving these numbers and boosting overall campaign success", he said.

Dr. Jawad Zahid, District Health Officer, accompanying the CEO during the press conference, highlighted that parental consent for HPV vaccine was made mandatory which, however hampered the campaign. He emphasized the continued motivational efforts to get positive responses from the parents.

The data presented by the health department shows

performance across the district’s tehsils varying, with Kahuta and Kotli Sattian leading at 86% coverage each, followed by Gujar Khan and Rawalpindi Cantt at 85%. Rawalpindi City achieved 83%, while Murree recorded 79%, Kallar Syedan and Taxila at 63% and 61% respectively.

The data further shows

That Rawalpindi City is at top in the list with 11,143 girls vaccinated, followed by Rawalpindi Cantt with 9,653 and Rawalpindi Rural with 9,442. Gujar Khan follows with 7,094, while Taxila, Kahuta, Murree, Kallar Syedan and Kotli Sattian reported 5039, 2318, 2162, 1677, and 1255 vaccinations respectively.

Dr. Jawad also highlighted the dengue updates with positive vibes from the field teams. Comparing the recent cases with those of previous year's, he noted that smart target driven strategy remained successful.

"We've focused the areas with greater dengue cases during the previous year, making it more precised and accelerated", he said.

The authority has called all the stakeholders including media and community workers to help the health department in achieving maximum vaccination.