The initiative, scheduled to begin on October 7, 2025, will provide free vaccines to eligible girls as part of a comprehensive strategy to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health threat.

The national exercise comes after a successful pilot of the vaccination exercise in 2013 in three regions – Central, Northern and Greater Accra.

Mr. Desmond Boateng, Chief Director, Ministry of Health, speaking on behalf of the Minister of Health at a workshop in Accra, emphasised that cervical cancer was a grave threat to women’s health in Ghana, claiming hundreds of lives every year.
He noted that nearly all cervical cancer cases were linked to persistent infection with the Human Papillomavirus, making prevention through vaccination a critical public health intervention.

“Cervical cancer continues to pose a grave threat to women’s health in Ghana. Scientific evidence shows that HPV prevention is achievable, and this is why we are launching the nationwide campaign to vaccinate people especially young girls,” he said.

He noted that over 2.5 million vaccine doses had been secured through collaboration between the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, the Paediatric Society of Ghana, UNICEF, Gavi, and numerous development partners.

He intimated that following the initial campaign, HPV vaccination would be integrated into Ghana’s routine immunization programme to ensure sustained protection for future generation of girls.

Dr. Hilda Mantebea Boye, President, Paediatric Society of Ghana, highlighted the significance of making the vaccine free, noting that it was a step that would put the country miles ahead in terms of prevention of cervical cancer.

She said the intervention represented protection for children’s future health, noting that recipients would be protected against various HPV-related cancers including cervical, anal, mouth, and penile cancers.

“The vaccine would be available to girls from the nine to fourteen years for free and that is really significant. And what it also means to us is that we are not expecting to see as many cases of the cervical cancer that we are seeing now,” she said.

Dr. Fiona Braka, WHO Ghana Representative, said Ghana was now part of 28 other countries in the WHO African region and 140 countries globally that had introduced HPV vaccination into their routine programmes, stating how delighted she was.

The HPV vaccination campaign forms part of WHO’s three-pronged cervical cancer elimination strategy, which aims to achieve 90 per cent vaccination coverage of girls by age 15, 70 per cent screening coverage of women aged 35-45, and 90 per cent treatment coverage for women with pre-cancerous lesions by 2030.

The approach seeks to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem within this decade.