HPV vaccination: The kryptonite for cervical cancer in India

England saw no cervical cancer deaths among women aged 20–24 for five years, linked to HPV vaccination of schoolgirls two decades earlier.

A Lancet study found no cervical cancer deaths in the first vaccinated cohorts (2008–18) despite screening declines.

India began national HPV vaccination in 2024 using a single dose of Gardasil-4 to about 1.15 crore girls aged 14 annually, free at government facilities.

Australia achieved cervical cancer incidence of 6.3 per 100,000 women by 2021, with no cases in women under 25, and aims for elimination (below 4 per 100,000) by 2035.

HPV strains 16 and 18 cause about 70% of cervical cancers; it is the only major cancer with a WHO global elimination strategy.