In the coming weeks, the Ministry of Health will switch to a single-dose HPV vaccine, ditching the current two-dose schedule.
The switch seeks to boost vaccination rates nationwide and speed up the fight against cervical cancer.
Director-General for Health Dr. Patrick Amoth says the change is backed by local research showing that one dose provides enough protection against the virus that causes most cervical cancer cases.
“Within a month, we are moving from two doses of the HPV vaccine to a single dose,” Amoth announced.
He was speaking at the National Science Research Translation Congress, held at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) campus in Nairobi. “This shift is based on our own locally derived data,” he added.
According to Amoth, the change will help the ministry reach more girls especially in underserved communities and make it easier for families to get through the vaccination process.
“A single-dose regimen will promote better coverage because we can reach more girls quickly,” he explained.
“Our dream, both globally and nationally, is to make cervical cancer a thing of the past by 2030.”
Amoth pointed out that science has proven one dose of the HPV vaccine offers the same protection as the two or three doses that were given before.
“This, therefore, means we will be able to cover more girls 10 to 14 years of age and in turn, our budget requirements will also reduce and we can be able to deploy that money to buy other antigens,” he said.
He explained that the decision is backed by data from the Kenya National Immunisation Technical Advisory Group (KENITAG).
“The lead scientist on this was a professor from Kenya,” he added.
Dr. Amoth says first-dose coverage is currently sitting at around 60 percent, while second-dose coverage has dropped to just 38 percent.
“Moving to one dose will help close that gap,” he said.
The ministry is also adding a second dose of the inactivated polio vaccine at nine months to strengthen childhood immunization coverage.
Amoth explained that both vaccine policy changes are driven by the ministry’s commitment to letting data, not guesswork, guide their decisions, along with ongoing input from scientific and public health experts.
“We make policy based on data. Research has to guide every change we make in our immunization program,” he said.
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