At the end of January 2020, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) vaccinated 8,500 nine-year-old girls against the human papillomavirus (HPV) in Chiradzulu district, Malawi, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH). Teams reached out to girls in 100 schools in 17 health centers over the course of eight days.
In Chiradzulu, cervical cancer accounts for 40 percent of all cancers diagnosed in women. By ensuring HPV vaccination for girls in rural and isolated areas, MSF is helping to reduce the number of lives that could be lost to cervical cancer.