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Review
. 2022 Aug 1:10:907720.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.907720. eCollection 2022.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the national HPV immunization program in Malaysia

Sharvina Ramesh Rao  1 , Nirmala Kampan  1 , Kah Teik Chew  1 , Mohamad Nasir Shafiee  1
Affiliations
Review

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the national HPV immunization program in Malaysia

Sharvina Ramesh Rao et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

In Malaysia, the HPV immunization program has been introduced since 2010 as part of the national immunization plan for female students aged 13 years old. It was a very successful immunization program with good responses from students and parents until the start of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the schools to be closed and resulted about 225000 female students aged 13 years old either missed their vaccination or have incomplete doses of HPV vaccination in 2020 and 2021. This could possibly lead to an increase in cases of cervical cancer and genital warts in the upcoming years. Hence, a wellorganized catch-up HPV vaccination program is vital in ensuring the aim of achieving zero HPV-related infections in the future.

Keywords: COVID-19; HPV vaccine; cervical cancer; immunization; vaccine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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