Rawalpindi Successfully Vaccinated 24,179 Girls With HPV Vaccine On First Day

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published September 16, 2025 | 04:20 PM

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Sep, 2025) The health teams on the first day vaccinated 24,179 girls with Human Papillomavirus (HPV) across the district achieving 6% of the campaign’s total target, and meeting 73% of the daily goal of 32,967 vaccinations. District Health Authority has set a target of 3,95,609 girls for the 13 day HPV Campaign, started on Sep 15 and will be continued till Sep 27.

According to the details received by APP, the strong start signals a promising push to curb a disease that affects countless women.

Vaccination efforts varied across Rawalpindi’s tehsils.

Kahuta led with 88% of its daily target met, while Taxila covered 44%. Rawalpindi City vaccinated the highest number of girls at 5,370, followed by Rawalpindi Cantt with 4,860 and Rawalpindi Rural with 4,643.

Despite the early success, challenges persist as 6,957 girls missed on the first day, of which 4,824 cases were identified as parental refusals, largely due to misinformation about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.

A total of 1,847 girls were unavailable during health team visits to homes or schools, and 286 were unable to receive the vaccine due to illness.

The Rawalpindi Health Authority urged parents to support the campaign, emphasizing the vaccine’s proven safety and effectiveness.

“The HPV vaccine is endorsed by medical experts worldwide,” said Dr. Ehsan Ghani, CEO District Health Authority, Rawalpindi in a brief talk with APP on Tuesday.

He urged the parents not to let false information put their child’s future at risk. He further said that the health workers are actively engaging communities and schools, ready to address concerns and provide factual information.

The authority called for cooperation to ensure all eligible girls are vaccinated, securing a healthier future for the next generation. 395