In December 2022, the WHO said first-dose HPV vaccination coverage declined by 25 percent to 15 percent between 20 worldwide, meaning 3.5 million more girls missed out. "Sexual and reproductive health is not prioritized," she said.
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"Prices are rather high and unaffordable for the population," said Serrao, in a country where the minimum monthly income is about $75 and a basket of basic household goods for a month costs more than $500.įor Suzany Gonzalez, director of the non-governmental Centre for Studies on Sexual and Reproductive Rights (Cedesex), the absence of a free HPV vaccine is a violation of sexual rights. But in Venezuela, given there is no herd immunity from widespread vaccination, doctors suggest three. The WHO recommends at least one or two doses. Gynecologist Ana Teresa Serrao told AFP a single dose of Gardasil 4 can cost as much as $140 or $150, while Gardasil 9, which acts against nine HPV types, can cost up to $350 per dose. "One never knows" about the disease risk people could be exposed to from their sexual partners, she said. Garcia told AFP she was trying to get her partner to follow suit. STIs are "not talked about," university student Corina Garcia, 27, told AFP as she received her third dose in the capital Caracas, thanks to her mother who is a doctor. Making matters worse, sex is a taboo topic in the conservative, Catholic country where people known to carry a sexually transmitted infection (STI) are stigmatized. Tests and screens for cervical cancer are also hard to come by in public hospitals, meaning patients have to pay for a private consultation or wait for help from an NGO. "Averting the development of cervical cancer by increasing access to effective vaccines is a highly significant step in alleviating unnecessary illness and death," the UN's health agency said in a report last year.Īs HPV vaccination is done privately in Venezuela, there is no official data on how many people have received one or more shots. In Venezuela, as in many countries, HPV vaccines are also given to boys. The WHO recommends vaccination for girls from the age of nine, though it can also be administered to adults. The government had promised years ago to include the HPV vaccine in its free inoculation schedule, but Venezuela remains one of the few Latin American countries not to have done so. The incidence rate over the same period grew from 23.82 to 32.16 per 100,000.īreast cancer, which has not been linked to HPV, remains the main cause of death for women in Venezuela. The rate of mortality for cervical cancer in Venezuela jumped from 10.45 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2019 to 11.82 per 100,000 two years later, according to the SAC, which did not provide a reason for the increase.
There is no official data on HPV infection-which can also cause penile, anal and other cancers-in Venezuela, a country of about 30 million people.Īccording to the country's non-profit Anti-Cancer Society (SAC) there were more than 5,900 cases of cervical cancer registered in the country in 2021. "I saved up for a few months to be able to do it," Montano added. "To get vaccinated was not easy," Montano, a 26-year-old business administrator told AFP after sitting for her third and final dose of the Gardasil 4 vaccine, which protects against four HPV types. In Venezuela, people have to pay for the shot themselves. She is one of relatively few in the South American country to have been inoculated against the sexually-transmitted Human papillomavirus that the World Health Organization (WHO) says causes 95 percent of cervical cancer.
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