{"id":23169,"date":"2026-02-02T07:39:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T05:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-launches-nationwide-hpv-vaccination-drive-for-young-girls\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:01","slug":"sa-launches-nationwide-hpv-vaccination-drive-for-young-girls","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-launches-nationwide-hpv-vaccination-drive-for-young-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"SA launches nationwide HPV vaccination drive for young girls"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) ADepartment of Health will today begin its nationwide Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination drive targeting girls aged nine years and older.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>HPV is a common virus that can infect both males and females and is responsible for causing cervical cancer in women later in life. The virus is primarily spread through skin-to-skin contact, often during sexual intercourse.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The department says the vaccination campaign aims to protect young girls from cervical cancer, which remains the second most common cancer among women in SA after breast cancer.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Health officials say vaccinating girls at a young age offers the best protection before potential exposure to the virus.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Doctor Fikile Ndlovu from the Department of Health explains:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The campaign looks at young girls at the age of nine, which is pre-teen. We must vaccinate our young girls before they are infected with HPV, hence choosing that age because it means you get a good immune response. It is before you become sexually active and get the HPV infection, so you get maximum protection in the future in terms of not getting cervical cancer,&#8221; says Ndlovu.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The department has urged parents and guardians to ensure eligible girls receive the vaccine as part of the country\u2019s long-term cancer prevention strategy.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23170,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-23169","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"HPV is a common virus that can infect both males and females.","published_date":null,"news_description":"HPV is a common virus that can infect both males and females.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26224,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23169\/revisions\/26224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}