TO DATE, a total of 336,592 Form 1 female students from the 2020 to 2022 cohort have not received a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine shot, Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said.

She said the Health Ministry (MOH) is committed to ensuring that all female students from the 2021, 2022 and 2023 cohorts receive the HPV vaccine before they finish secondary school.

“HPV vaccination for Form 1 students or teenagers who are 13 years old had to be postponed in 2021, due to a global supply disruption of HPV vaccines.

“So by using the remaining stock of vaccines available in 2020, a total of 34,933 people, or only 15.7% of Form 1 female students from the 2021 cohort, have received the first dose.

“This means that there is a total of 187,151 students or the remaining 84.3% who have not received the HPV vaccine for the 2021 cohort,” she said in reply to a question from Yeo Bee Yin (Puchong-PH) in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Yeo had wanted to know the latest status of the HPV vaccination for more than 500,000 girls who missed the injection from 2020 to 2022 as well as the procurement allocation of RM120 million for the vaccine this year.

Meanwhile, Zaliha said in 2022, the price of the HPV vaccine had increased sixfold and only 100,000 doses of the HPV vaccines were procured in December last year.

“We have distributed all these vaccines to the states to be given to Form 1 students from the 2021 cohort who have yet to receive the vaccine and the Health Ministry expects this new procurement will be finalised in the third quarter,” she said.

Zaliha also said female students from the 2021 cohort who are currently in Form 3 would be given priority for the HPV vaccination before it is dispensed to those from the 2022 and 2023 cohorts depending on the number of vaccines the ministry is able to procure this year. – Bernama, June 8, 2023.