Pakistan rolled out the vaccine for the HPV virus, which causes cervical cancer, last month.

In September, Pakistan launched its first-ever national human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine campaign, aiming to immunise more than 13 million girls aged nine to 14 in its first phase.

HPV is the most common cause of cervical cancer, which kills eight Pakistani women every day, according to Dr Dapeng Luo, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Pakistan. The United Nations health agency has set a goal of eradicating cervical cancer globally by 2030.

But the vaccine has met resistance in Pakistan, as conspiracy theories about inoculations have circulated.

Here is more about what HPV is, how it causes cervical cancer, and why the vaccine rollout in Pakistan has faced a backlash.

What is HPV and what are the symptoms?

HPV is a common group of viruses that enter the body via skin-to-skin contact, typically through a cut or abrasion.

There are more than 100 types of HPV, and they are often spread through sexual contact. Infection can be hard to identify because many people who have contracted an HPV have no symptoms at all, and it can take many years for cancer to develop.

Some types of the virus eventually cause warts on the genitals or other parts of the body. These may appear flat or bumpy.

How does HPV cause cervical cancer?

More than 95 percent of the 660,000 cervical cancer cases recorded each year worldwide are caused by HPV, according to the WHO. In Pakistan, more than 5,000 new cases of cervical cancer are reported every year, it said.

Some strains of HPV can cause different types of cancer, such as cervical cancer, vulvar cancer or vaginal cancer. However, cervical cancer typically develops 20 years after the onset of the HPV infection.

Advertisement

While the body’s immune system can clear away many strains of HPV within two years of infection, certain strains are more persistent. When the body’s immune system is unable to fight off the more persistent HPV strains, the virus interferes with normal cell growth, causing cells to become abnormal and potentially leading to