March 2023: South Africa kicked off its annual national campaign against HPV

South Africa kicked off its annual national campaign against HPV on February 20, targeting girls ages 9 and older in public schools with two doses of HPV vaccine. The first phase of the campaign is slated to end March 31, while the second is scheduled for October 4-31. The campaign is integrated with measles vaccines. The country hopes to regain public confidence in vaccine campaigns after coverage of targeted girls collapsed from almost 85 percent in 2014 to 3 percent when Covid-19 struck. First-dose coverage had reached about 30 percent as of mid-March. South African MoH; News24; Vuk’uzenzele