A school vaccination drive, a decade on: infections behind most cervical cancers are down 83% in South Africa

In 2014, South Africa began offering the HPV vaccine free in public schools to girls aged nine and older — and about 87% took it in the first year. HPV is the virus behind almost all cervical cancers. Now researchers Dorothy Nyemba-Machemedze and Sinead Delany-Moretlwe have measured what a decade of those school-day jabs achieved: infections with HPV types 16 and 18, which cause around 70% of cervical cancers worldwide, have fallen by 83% among vaccinated girls — including girls living with HIV, who face the highest risk.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: institutional program