Rwandan HPV National Vaccination Program

In 2011, MSD initiated a three-year comprehensive national cervical cancer prevention program with the Government of Rwanda that included human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination for girls.  Rwanda was the first nation in Africa to offer a comprehensive prevention program for cervical cancer that incorporated vaccinations against four types of HPV for appropriate girls. During the program, which took place prior to availability of Gavi funding for HPV vaccination, MSD donated over 1.3 million doses of GARDASIL^® [Human Papillomavirus Quadrivalent (Types 6, 11, 16 and 18) Vaccine, Recombinant] to Rwanda, enough to vaccinate all eligible girls in grade six as well as a catch-up of girls up to age 14.  Since 2015, Rwanda has procured GARDASIL through support from Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance.

In year one, Rwanda achieved well over 90% vaccination coverage (Binagwaho, 2012), and continues to demonstrate one of the highest HPV vaccination rates in the world.  A 2020 publication indicated that over 1.1 million girls received the first dose of HPV vaccine from 2011-2018, corresponding to 98% of the eligible target (Sayinzoga, Umulisa, et al. 2020)