Speaking to journalists at the first Women Deliver conference to be held on the African continent hosted by Republic of Rwanda, Marian Wentworth, the president and CEO of Management Sciences for Health (MSH), said that the HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) vaccine is safe and very effective in preventing cervical cancer and other HPV-caused cancers. It’s been around in the marketplace since 2006.
MSH has been focusing on strengthening the health system for all medicines and vaccines within Rwanda.
“We’re launching a new project which will further strengthen the health system in Rwanda. It will work on different levels – providing universal health coverage, including health financing, leadership management and governance, and human resources for health”, said Wentworth.
“It is very important that we have distributed ability to make vaccines available and also essential medicines. And Africa is a continent with more than a third of the world’s health burden. Almost none of the basic manufacturing of vaccines or the essential ingredients to essential medicines is based here in Africa”.
Wentworth pointed out that MSH operates in various parts of Africa. Elaborating on the HPV vaccine, she said it has been studied extensively and hundreds of millions of doses have been administered around the world. “That is a very safe vaccine”.
On being asked if anyone should be worried about the HPV vaccine, Wentworth said “It’s very easy to be worried, but we should be worried not just about new medicines, we should be worried about the diseases that can take our children as well”.
Marian Wentworth, the president and CEO of Management Sciences for Health (MSH)
Asked about her presence at the Women Deliver conference, Wentworth said it was an opportunity to meet with MSH staff, as MSH has three projects in Rwanda. Above that, the conference was an opportunity to tell stories about the work of MSH all over the globe.
“In particular, we’re talking this week about some of the amazing work we do with you in Rwanda”,
she said. Rwanda was among the first African countries to implement a national school-based HPV vaccination programme, which has consistently shown high (≥90%) coverage over the past decade. Rwanda’s success provides an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of the vaccine at the population level, with the first cohort of girls vaccinated in 2011 now becoming sexually active.
By Eric Bertrand NKUNDIYE
