The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) has announced the launch of a multi-country study to better understand the burden of human papillomavirus (HPV) among girls and women in low- and lower-middle-income countries, supported by a $14.99 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with $1 million in co-funding from the Swedish government.

The focus of the global study will be on girls and women ages 9 to 50 in three South Asian countries and five sub-Saharan African countries that currently have no or limited data on HPV burden and have either not yet introduced HPV vaccines into national immunization programs or have had mixed success with uptake. So far, the team has completed regional workshops to ensure a harmonized study protocol across all eight countries, hosted in Nepal for the South Asian countries (Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan) and Tanzania for the African countries (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Zambia).

This is IVI’s second grant from the Gates Foundation to understand and remove barriers to HPV prevention and vaccination. IVI is also leading a study in partnership with the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand to demonstrate the effectiveness of a single dose of HPV vaccine, thereby making vaccination more accessible than the current two- or three-dose schedules.

“Nearly all cases of cervical cancer are due to HPV infection. Less than 15 percent of girls and women worldwide are fully vaccinated, and coverage is even lower in low- and middle-income countries,” said IVI’s cholera program director and HPV study team lead Julia Lynch. “Through this global burden study, we hope to generate data that will inform effective strategies to prevent infection and ultimately introduce HPV vaccine into national programs, protecting the health of girls and women and reducing rates of cervical cancer.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/wilpunt)