Ten vaccinated in Kosovo Against cervical cancer

The vaccine application has been realised since in Kosovo, in October last year, 300 doses of this vaccine arrived, health institutions representatives said.

Fetije Fetaj, chief of immunization at the Kosovo National Institute of Public Health, says the vaccine has been done voluntarily.

The virus is transmitted mainly through sexual relations and can cause various diseases among the affected, including cervical cancer in women.

The Health Ministry confirmed that 300 doses of vaccine have been provided for Radio Europe, while next year they said the number of these vaccines would rise significantly.

By 2024, according to the UN, HPV vaccine is scheduled to be included in the regular vaccine calendar.

This vaccine, according to health authorities, will be given to girls aged 12 to 16, and the vaccine will be recommended but not mandatory.

According to the World Health Organisation, HPV vaccines function better if managed before exposure to papyrus virus.

To prevent cervical cancer. WHO recommends vaccinating girls between the ages of 9 and 14, when, reportedly, most have not yet started sexual activity.

The director of the Gynecology Clinic at the University Clinical Centre of Kosovo, Zef Ndferaj, shows that during 2022, 72 patients were treated with cervical cancer.

Ndajaj says that in recent years there is an increase in the number of cases with the disease and that is why vaccination is necessary.

According to him, the first doses of vaccines that have arrived in Kosovo should initially be given to girls whose family members are diagnosed with cervical cancer.

“Pass has come only 300 doses, should be selected because heredity is one of the factors. There must be those girls who have had one of the members of the sick family, such as mother, aunt or uncle, or had cases of family members... here should focus on these 300 doses of vaccines”, he points out.

Even gynecologist Blerim Syla, who works in Kosovo's public and private health sector, says cases with cervical cancer are frequent, but according to him, in Kosovo are found late.

The recent discovery, according to him, is inexorable and prevention is the strongest possible possibility.

However, the introduction of this vaccine into the regular vaccination calendar, according to Syla, should be done at the recommendation of the Gynecologists' Association, and not for that, to decide the Health Ministry.

We have to be very careful, once again, to take the examples of countries that have applied... it's good, it's preventative, but there's a lot of questions before it's placed in the communication calendar. At the moment [excilation] may be recommended, but by no means binding”, Syla tells Radio Free Europe.

He adds that health professionals should look for the negative or positive effects of this vaccine on countries that already apply it before deciding whether to enter the regular vaccine calendar.

The Kosovo Observatory and Gynecologists' Association is interested that as soon as this vaccine is put into the regular vaccination calendar, says Naser Rafuna, chairman of this association, adding that this recommendation has been presented to state institutions.

He says this vaccine has already been tested in various parts of the world and the region, and has proved effective in protecting cervical cancer.

Meanwhile, according to University Clinical Clinic Director Arben Bislimi at the University Clinical Centre, Kosovo has been late to put the vaccine against cancer in the cervical calendar.

He says Kosovo is the only state in the region that it does not have on the regular calendar.

“Based on data, the number of patients with cervical cancer per year is brought from 50 to 60 in the Oncology Clinic. And this number tends to increase in Kosovo, probably due to the lack of vaccine”, Bislim says.

There is a drop of the cervical cancer rate in the last three decades due to the use of these preventative methods, especially with vaccine”, he adds.

cervical cancer, according to O BSH is the fourth most common type of cancer in women, and more than 95 percent of cases are caused by sexually transmitted diseases.

Based on studies recently conducted by the organisation “Cancer Research”, headquartered in Britain, HPV vaccine reduces cervical cancer to almost 90 percent.

Albania is the last state from the region to have introduced the HPV vaccine into the mandatory vaccine calendar. By November 2022, Minister of Health and Social Protection Ogerta Manastirliu has said that vaccine against HPV has been distributed to all health centres.

Even in Montenegro, last September last year, the application of this vaccine has begun.

In northern Macedonia, this vaccine is on the calendar, while by 2013 it is mandatory for group ages 12 to 26 and is given in three doses.

Serbia's vaccine calendar is also HPV, but vaccine is not mandatory, but is recommended.

The HPV vaccine is also given in Bosnia and Herzegovina, though not binding.