HPV vaccine should be taken three times in a lifetime, say specialists

SHAH ALAM: The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to prevent cervical cancer should be taken three times in a lifetime in sequence within a year to contain the third major cancer faced by women in Malaysia.

Avisena Women’s and Children’s Specialist Hospital (AWCSH) consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dr Raja Arif Shah Raja Ismail, said the vaccine, introduced in 2010 by the government for 13-year-old schoolchildren, was one of the methods to reduce cervical cancer by up to 70 per cent if every woman took the vaccine.