WHO urges to consider HPV vaccination for 4 to 8-yera-old girls

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Countries should consider routinely vaccinating girls aged four to eight against human papillomavirus (HPV) if doing so would help expand coverage, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) vaccine experts have recommended.

Anthony Scott, chair of the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), made the recommendation on Tuesday (October 13) noting that around 165 countries have already introduced HPV vaccination programmes.

“However, global HPV vaccination coverage is 33 per cent, which is far below our global target of 90 per cent,” Scott told reporters.

The WHO continues to prioritise HPV vaccination for all girls aged nine to 14, the group at highest priority for preventing future cervical cancer.

In 2022, the WHO recommended one or two doses of the vaccine for girls aged nine to 14. The same schedule was extended to young women aged 15 to 20, while women older than 21 were advised to receive two doses six months apart.

After reviewing updated research evidence, SAGE concluded that a single-dose vaccination strategy for girls aged nine to 14 was the most effective approach to achieving global immunisation targets.

Scott said countries could also consider routine vaccination for girls aged four to eight if the approach offered the potential to increase uptake and coverage.

Cervical cancer remains a major global threat

Persistent infection with HPV can cause cervical cancer, which ranked as the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer among women worldwide in 2024, according to the WHO.

Around 604,000 new cases were recorded that year, while approximately 280,000 women died from the disease.

Kate O’Brien, director of the WHO’s Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, said more than 95 million girls had received HPV vaccines by the end of 2025.

The WHO said cervical cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in 26 countries. Most of those countries are located in sub-Saharan Africa, parts of South and Central America, Melanesia and Southeast Asia.

The latest recommendation on younger girls is intended to give countries another option to expand vaccination coverage, while the WHO’s established priority remains immunising girls aged nine to 14 to prevent HPV-related cervical cancer.