Pakistan vaccinates 9 million girls against cervical cancer despite
online backlash
[September 27, 2025]
By ADIL JAWAD
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan has vaccinated about 9 million
adolescent girls against the virus that causes cervical cancer, as part
of a continuing national campaign that has overcome early setbacks
fueled by skeptics online, the health minister said Friday.
Health Minister Mustafa Kamal said the campaign that began Sept. 15 is
aiming to vaccinate 13 million girls aged 9 to 14 against the human
papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes most cervical cancers. He said the
program so far achieved 70% of its goal.
The program has overcome what Kamal said were baseless rumors spread by
some parents that the vaccine could cause infertility. He gave the
vaccine to his own daughter live on stage at an event in Karachi this
week to build confidence.
“By the grace of God, administering the vaccine to my daughter publicly
had a huge impact,” Kamal told The Associated Press. “From the fifth day
of the campaign, refusal rates began dropping and acceptance climbed to
70–80% in some districts.”
However, many parents are still reluctant.
“I have heard that the vaccination is being used to make women infertile
and reduce the population of Muslims,” said Ali Sheikh, a mother of two
in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province.
She said that “social media is full of such claims,” and that she was
advised by relatives not to allow health workers to vaccinate her
daughters.
Health worker Shamim Anwar, 52, said the job of administering the
vaccines has been exhausting.
“It is very difficult work. Many parents refuse because of rumors and
hesitate to let us vaccinate their daughters,” she said.
“Sometimes we even face humiliation, but we tolerate it because we have
to complete the vaccination target,” she said, as she went door-to-door
for the campaign in Karachi.
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A health worker gives an injection of human papillomavirus (HPV)
vaccine to a girl during a campaign aiming to protect girls from
cervical cancer, at a school in Lahore, Pakistan, Monday, Sept. 22,
2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
 Cervical cancer is the third most
common cancer among Pakistani women after breast and ovarian
cancers. Globally, it is the fourth most common. Each year, between
18,000 and 20,000 women in Pakistan die of the disease, according to
health authorities.
Experts promoted the campaign under the slogan “one jab will do the
job.” Authorities set up vaccination centers and deployed teams to
schools nationwide to reach as many girls as possible.
Kamal acknowledged that during the first days of the drive, refusals
outnumbered acceptances, fueled by false claims that the vaccine
campaign is a Western plot to cause infertility.
Officials say the vaccine, offered free of charge, typically causes
only minor side effects.
The 13 million girls targeted in the initial campaign were in Punjab
and Sindh provinces and in Pakistan-held Kashmir. The country plans
to expand the coverage to additional areas by 2027, hoping to
eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem by 2030. It
became the 149th country to add the HPV vaccine to its immunization
schedule.
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Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed contributed to this story from
Islamabad.
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